Captain Johan Potgieter sits in a helicopter, wearing his police uniform. He wears a pair of headphones with a microphone attached.Johan Potgieter

A police officer has recalled the moment he was lowered from a helicopter into a crocodile-infested river in South Africa as part of an effort to recover human remains.

Captain Johan Potgieter was tasked with capturing a crocodile suspected of eating a businessman who had been swept away by floodwater.

"The crocodile itself was lying on an island... there really was no other way to get to it except from the air," he told the BBC.

Since the operation, remains have been found inside the 4.5m (15ft) and 500kg (1,100lb) crocodile. DNA tests are underway to confirm their identity.

The man's car had become stranded attempting to cross a low bridge in the flooded Komati River last week. By the time the police got to the scene, it was empty, leading them to suspect he had been swept away by the water.

Drones and helicopters were used in the search mission which led police to a small island where a number of crocodiles lay in the sun, one of which they believed had eaten the man.

The suspect crocodile was shot by Potgieter's colleagues before he was called.

"It turned onto its back and they thought that it was dead. But by the time we went back, it was back onto its right side and it had swum a bit upstream," he explained.

The presence of other crocodiles, hippos and rocks in the river meant it was too dangerous to use a boat or canoe to recover the body, Potgieter told the BBC.

"There were other crocodiles next to that one that were probably there because of the blood in the water. But luckily because of the noise of the helicopter and the downdraft blowing around, they moved away and didn't bother me," the veteran officer said.

Once Potgieter agreed to do the recovery operation, there was no turning back.

"When I was hanging there, there was no way for me to communicate with the pilot. So irrespective of whether I changed my mind and decided not to do it, there was no way that that was going to happen," he added.

"I had to stick to the plan and do as we had planned... otherwise things would have gone wrong."

On Sunday, South Africa's acting police chief praised Potgieter's "extraordinary bravery", describing the operation as "highly dangerous and complex".

The police said it was a "highly dangerous and complex operation"

Potgieter, a member of the national police force's diving unit, could only be certain the crocodile was dead after he was lowered into the river and tied a rope around it.

"Then I knew it was 100% dead. Because if it wasn't, it would have definitely attacked me," he said.

Potgieter told South African news platform News24 that body parts and shoes were found inside the reptile. The remains are yet to be identified.

Although Potgieter has been with the South African Police Service for 38 years, he has never been assigned a mission of this kind before.

"This was definitely a first and hopefully it will also be the last time...there's really no way to prepare".

The officer said his family were happy to see him return alive, although they did not know how dangerous the operation had been until they saw the video online.

Potgieter said his work is a risk worth taking for the families of the missing and deceased.

"We have a lot of empathy for the families of the victims. They are grieving a loved one. It's never nice losing someone you love and it's even worse if you don't even know where they are or what happened to them.

"So that is one of our core motivators - to give these families closure so that they can carry on with their lives." (BBC)

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