HONG KONG (AFP) -- Eyes glued to the water, his weather-beaten face taut with concentration, the hunter draws his harpoon and hurls it at a dark shadow in the murky creek to gasps of excitement from onlookers.

But as the darkness is suddenly illuminated by hundreds of flash bulbs going off simultaneously the elusive crocodile that has evaded capture while capturing headlines in Hong Kong for more than a week slips away again.

Passersby could be forgiven for thinking they had stumbled onto the set of a sequel to the popular Crocodile Dundee movies starring Paul Hogan as craggy croc hunter Mick Dundee.

Hong Kong's version, however, hasn't kept to quite the same successful story line but has nonetheless become something of a mini-drama in itself.

Real-life croc hunter, Australian John Lever, was called in when agricultural officials threw in the towel after trying -- and failing -- for a week to snare the scaly reptile that mysteriously appeared in a polluted bog near the Chinese border.

Crocodiles are not native to Hong Kong and experts believe the wayward beast is likely a pet or has escaped from a farm on the Chinese mainland where exotic animals are consumed in restaurants.

Rugged Lever was pulled from the Koorana Crocodile Farm near Rockhampton in Queensland state to urban Hong Kong last week.