Learn Swedish: Vad hemskt att krokodilen sägs sluka människor! - How terrible that the crocodile is said to devour people!

This is a special construction where passive verbs of reporting (like sägs, anses, or påstås) are followed directly by a bare infinitive, without the infinitive marker att. It functions just like the English "is said to devour", but Swedish doesn't need a word for "to" here.

Could we rephrase this using an att-clause after sägs instead of the infinitive?

Yes! You could express the same idea by saying ...att det sägs att krokodilen slukar människor. However, the structure used in this sentence (krokodilen sägs sluka) is much neater and extremely common in both news reporting and everyday speech.

Why is it hemskt with a -t when krokodilen is an en-word?

The adjective hemskt doesn't describe the crocodile. It describes the entire abstract situation ("that the crocodile is said to devour people"). Clauses and abstract concepts are treated as neuter (ett-words), so the describing adjective takes the -t ending.

Why do we use vad here instead of hur to mean "how"?

In Swedish exclamations, vad is the standard word used before an adjective or adverb to mean "how" or "what a". Therefore, vad hemskt! naturally translates to "how terrible!" or "how awful!".