via Crocs Eating Human At Zimbabwe Cruise Shock British Tourists – International Business Times March 17 2015 by Vittorio Hernandez
A sunset cruise along the Zambezi River, which is between Zimbabwe and Zambia, turned out to be a shocker for British tourists as they saw crocodiles feeding on a human. When the vessel got closer to the feeding frenzy, the tourists realised the reptiles were dining on the lower half of a human body.
The tour operator reported the incident to authorities, but by the time that the police came, all they saw of the victim was his trousers floating, reports the Telegraph. The police said that they have no information about a missing person from communities surrounding the area, so they think the victim is not a local resident.
Trevor Lane of Bhejani Trust, a conservation group in Zimbabwe, said they suspect the victim was a poacher. When National Parks Zimbabwe received a tip from Botswana that poachers from Zambia were on the way to the area, rangers in Zimbabwe were alerted.
The rangers ambushed a group of 13 people suspected to be poachers. One was killed outright in the encounter, but a local intelligence report suggested that only nine returned to the river.
Lane explains, “I suspect the man who was eaten by the crocodile was either injured during that shoot out and tried to escape through the water, or he was shot in the water, and was already dead when the crocodiles ate him.”
In the past three months, three children were reportedly attacked and eaten by crocodiles.
On Feb 22, a croc snatched a three-year-old girl who was playing on the Zambezi in Hwange in northern Zimbabwe. AOL said that the tyke, Lubelihle Nyoni, is the third person in her family killed by a crocodile. A few years ago, her grandfather and uncle were also attacked and consumed by a reptile, said Margi Reno, a relative of Nyoni who was doing something a few metres from the river when she heard the girl’s scream.
In the same month, a croc attacked a 17-year-old male cattle herder in the Mutirikwi River in southeastern Zimbabwe. On Jan 1, another crocodile attacked a 16-year-old girl in Runde River in southern Zimbabwe.
To protect residents, authorities are also killing the man-eating reptiles such as the large croc from the Mazonwe River in eastern Zimbabwe which state rangers killed within the week.
To contact the writer, email: v.hernandez@ibtimes.com.au
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