Journalist for prestigious newspaper eaten by crocodile washing hands in lagoon

A journalist for Financial Times was reportedly eaten by a crocodile after he strayed away from his friends to wash his hands at a nearby lagoon in Sri Lanka.

Police said the alleged attack occurred Thursday afternoon after Paul McClean, 25, separated from friends he was vacationing with and walked some distance in the lagoon.

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McClean, who graduated from Oxford University with an honors degree in French, was reportedly seen frantically "waving his hands in the air" before being dragged underwater at a lagoon known as Crocodile Rock, The Sun reported.

His body was recovered the morning after he went missing in the Panama lagoon.

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The Financial Times, where McClean had been employed since 2015, said on its website that officials have also told McClean's friends the young reporter was likely attacked by a crocodile.

The cause of death, however, has yet to be established and a post-mortem investigation is slated to be conducted Friday.