MANILA - Authorities are searching for a crocodile from the Coral Farm in Teresa, Rizal after the heavy downpour brought by tropical storm “Ondoy” caused the water in the cages to overflow last Saturday letting loose the reptiles.

The Rizal Philippine National Police (PNP) said it received reports that five crocodiles escaped from the Coral Farm during the height of Ondoy (international name Ketsana).

Of the five crocodiles, four were recaptured, police said.

However, the Coral Farm management denied the report, saying that none of their crocodiles escaped.

Police advised Rizal residents to be extremely cautious as they continue their search for the missing reptile.

The “crocodile scare” started when three people claimed seeing a crocodile swimming floodwaters in Cainta Greenpark Village early Monday morning.

Michael Lambert, Kenneth Taneo and Marie Tan reportedly spotted a crocodile at the corner of Dollar and Schilling streets sometime after midnight on Monday, September 28.

Lambert took a picture of the animal and posted the photograph on his Facebook account.

“I had to back up and take this from a higher point. A few seconds earlier, this was right in front of us!” Lambert said in his Facebook post. “I adjusted the exposure and brightness of this photo.”

“Apparently, a lot of these creatures had escaped from the Pasig Rainforest Park during the typhoon. And one of them made it into the flooded streets of this private village in Cainta,” Lambert said in his Facebook post.

But Pasig City Mayor Robert Eusebio earlier denied that a crocodile from the forest park escaped.

Lambert later conceded that the animal may have come from anywhere. “We do not know where it came from. Might have come from the zoo or swamps around the area.”

Cainta Police later claimed that the crocodile has already been recaptured.

“Actually, yung buwaya po ay nanggaling sa rainforest site sa Pasig na nasa tabi ng floodway…So iyong buwaya na sinasabing nakawala ay isa sa mga alaga sa loob ng gubat,” Police Superintendent Torrecampo of the Cainta Police said in an interview over ANC.

“It was immediately recaptured pagkalabas niya. Wala pong buwaya on the loose,” he added.

Torrecampo explained that the crocodile escaped when the floodwaters overflowed from the reptile’s cage during the height of the typhoon.

“Noong nakita ng mga caretakers nung rainforest [park] na may nakawala, nare-capture na kaagad nila ang buwaya na ito,” he said.

However, it is not clear if Torrecampo is referring to the same crocodile which was spotted by three people in Cainta Greenpark Village.

“As far as Cainta Police is concerned, isa lang ang nakawala, at it was immediately recaptured,” he said.

With reports from Gemma Bagayaua Mendoza, abs-cbnNEWS.com/ Newsbreak with Mark Telan, abs-cbnNEWS.com and Jenny Reyes, ABS-CBN News