The country suffered four years of ethnic conflict on the main island of Guadalcanal which ended when a regional intervention force landed last August and, as part of their mission, rounded up all firearms.

Inspector Graeme Cairns, head of the New Zealand police group in the islands, told the newspaper that islanders now had no way to deal with the big crocodiles.

He said at least four people had been killed in the past six months, the latest being a young girl whose remains were found inside a five metrefoot) long crocodile.

"We are getting an increasing number of calls to deal with crocodiles, which is understandable," Cairns said.

"You don't want to kill one of those things with anything but a high-powered weapon from a distance."

Police say there is little point killing crocodiles as they are territorial and the death of one would result in it being replaced by another from the dozens that live in Crocodile River nearby.

The Solomon Islands, 2575 kilometres (1,600 miles) east of Australia has 494,786 people living on dozens of islands with a total land area of 27,540 square kilometres (11,016 square miles).

TERRA.WIRE