Australian authorities said yesterday they are considering allowing hunters to pay to kill crocodiles as a spate of deadly attacks in the country's north has focused attention on the need for a cull.

Schoolgirl Briony Goodsell was taken by a saltwater crocodile last Sunday while swimming in the Black Jungle Swamp, near the northern city of Darwin, with her seven-year-old sister and two friends.

Witnesses said they saw a crocodile's tail slap the water near the 11-year-old seconds before she disappeared, and DNA tests confirmed human remains recovered from the swamp belonged to Goodsell.