Mutant fish with taste for human flesh attacks swimmers in Indian river

By Wil Longbottom
Last updated at 12:52 PM on 09th October 2008

A giant mutant fish is believed to be targeting swimmers in an Indian river after developing a taste for human flesh.

The goonch, a huge type of catfish, is believed to have been feeding on corpses thrown into the Great Kali after funeral ceremonies.

Locals have believed for years that a mysterious monster lurks in the water, but now they think it has moved on from scavenging to attacking swimmers venturing into the river, along the India-Nepal border.

Mysterious monster: Jeremy Wade and two guides hold a giant goonch fish, which is believed to have developed a taste for human flesh from feeding on the remains of corpses thrown into the Great Kali river after funerals

The mysterious creature has been investigated by biologist Jeremy Wade for a TV documentary to be shown on Five.

He said: 'The locals have told me of a theory that this monster has grown extra large on a diet of partially burnt corpses.

'It has perhaps got this taste for flesh by feasting on the remains of funeral pyres.

'There will be a few freak individuals that grow bigger than the other ones and if you throw in extra food, they will grow even bigger.'

Mr Wade caught a goonch which topped the scales at 161lb and was nearly 6ft long - a world weight for the species.

He said: 'If that got hold of you, there would be no getting away.'

Hungry specimen: The goonch fish is the main suspect behind the disappearance of at least two Nepalese people while bathing in rivers

Last year an 18-year-old Nepalese man disappeared in the river, dragged down by something described as like an 'elongated pig'.

But the first victim of a goonch attack is thought to have been a 17-year-old Nepalese boy who was suddenly pulled below the surface while cooling himself in a river in April 1988.

Three months later a young boy was dragged underwater as his father watched helplessly.