A crocodile in Palma

Municipal workers had to wait for permission to remove it

A plastic crocodile in the lake at Parc de la Mar in Palma, Mallorca

The 'crocodile' in the Parc de la Mar lake | Photo: @mallorcaviral

| Palma |

On Sunday morning, Emaya municipal services agency workers in Palma had to deal with a crocodile in the Parc de la Mar lake - a plastic crocodile.

They went out on a boat to tow it, but had to leave it because they didn't have the necessary permit to actually remove it. As the morning wore on, they waited for authorisation.

A performance artist had staged a show involving a plastic crocodile. It is therefore believed that the croc in the lake was the artist's. Palma Town Hall couldn't say whether the crocodile had been left in the lake deliberately or not.

Palma has some history of crocodiles. The Drac de na Coca (drac meaning dragon) appears for fiestas in the city, and there is a stuffed Drac de na Coca in the Museum of Sacred Art next to the Cathedral. The legend goes back to 1676 and to when the people of Palma were apparently terrorised by a 'dragon' that lived in the sewers. It was a crocodile that had escaped from a ship; the people had never seen a crocodile before.

That's part of the legend, the alternative version being that the stuffed crocodile was a collector's item brought to Mallorca and which was occasionally exhibited to the public.

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