The crocodile that had been spotted in Rome by several alarmed residents in the last couple of weeks has apparently been caught, without much of a struggle, as it turns out it was stuffed. Police were alerted after the two-metre-long reptile was seen basking on the artificial dam being built in the river Tiber beneath Ponte Garibaldi, its mouth wide open to display razor-sharp teeth. Two officers approached the animal cautiously, watched by a crowd of around 1,000 people, and threw a couple of stones at it to see what would happen. When it failed to react they picked it up and drove it to the police station. The "capture" follows three reported sightings of a crocodile in the city, in the river near Ponte Industria and on the Raccordo Anulare ring road.