Dutch tourist’s ‘Cage of Death’ salty close shave
A Dutch woman was left to dangle above a tank of man-eating saltwater crocodiles wearing only her togs for half an hour before emerging safe but shaken.
The tourist, Cynthia Spaan, was taking part in the popular “Cage of Death” attraction in the heart of Darwin’s central nightclub district.
Ms Spaan climbed a ladder to emerge from the perspex cage safe but shaken after staff used power tools to dismantle the dangling prison, the ABC reported.
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Cynthia Spaan stared down crocodiles on Darwin’s lively Mitchell Street. Source: ABC
She said she started “freaking out” after five minutes.
“In the beginning I thought it was really funny because I really wanted to do the cage dive so it was kind of okay,” she said.
“But after five minutes I started a little bit freaking out, because I’m a little bit claustrophobic.”
According to the ABC, Spaan kept her cool with the encouragement of chocolates, which were delivered to her cage.
Witness Anson Segall said Ms Spaan was quickly being eyed by the killer lizards.
“By the time she got to the end [of the gantry] the last crocodile was sort of clued in,” he said.
“It knew something was going on and he was basically sitting underneath just waiting for his meal to drop.”
He said after Ms Spaan got into the cage, staff dragged it suspended from a steel gantry over crocodile tanks. When it became stuck, staff began running around “frantically”, he said.
“The girl’s four friends were sitting on the sideline cheering and singing,” he said.
“After a while they all started to die down a bit and the mood became a bit more sombre.”
The cage of death is a popular Darwin tourist attraction in which a perspex cylinder containing up to two people is lowered into a pool that contains a large saltwater crocodile.
In 2011 the cable lowering the cage broke with two people inside and hit the bottom of the tank while a large crocodile was swimming nearby.
Crocodiles a #Dutch tourist was trapped over are William and Kate, renamed for the #Royal wedding pic.twitter.com/QzPnznGVoz
— Steven Schubert (@senorschubert) June 8, 2015
— with ABC
