Crocodile Hunter death devours Australian bandwidth

The death of Steve Irwin, "The Crocodile Hunter", at around 1100 (0100 GMT) whilst filming a documentary on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, has driven Australian internet traffic through the roof.

Many news sites in the country have been operating on low-bandwidth pages, or experiencing moderate to severe slowdowns, in an effort to keep themselves from falling over under the high load. According to Computerworld Australia, NineMSN alone was operating under a four-fold increase in traffic today.

Latest reports suggest that Mr Irwin died whilst snorkelling across shallow water when a Stingray barb pierced his chest in an apparently unprovoked and accidental attack. He will be sadly missed.