The huge crocodile took up position outside a hospital and attacked visitors
Officials were forced to shoot the reptile dead after it spread panic among locals
Experts said crocodile attacks were on the rise in recent weeks due to heavy rain
A large crocodile has been shot dead after it blocked a hospital entrance in Zimbabwe and attacked anyone who tried to enter or leave.
The massive reptile took up position outside the main gate to St Patrick’s hospital in the northern town of Hwange and charged visitors, creating panic among residents, local media reported.
Parks and wildlife authority spokesman Tinashe Farawo confirmed the incident, adding that crocodile attacks were on the rise in recent weeks due to heavy rain.
‘We received a report on Tuesday from Hwange where a crocodile was seen in the residential area and we had to put it down because it had become a threat to human life,’ Farawo told AFP.
‘Because of the rains we have been receiving, we have had several reports of people attacked by crocodiles.’
The crocodile was outside the hospital in Hwange for about two hours on Tuesday evening, attracting a large crowd of onlookers, before it was shot.
The Bulawayo-based Chronicle newspaper reported that it was unclear how the animal came to be outside the hospital as the nearest water was about 10 kilometres (six miles) away.
‘In less than five minutes, I had received more than 10 phone calls from residents who were in serious panic mode,’ local official Themba Tshuma told the paper.
‘At first I thought it was a prank because crocodiles are found around water bodies and not in the middle of a suburb.’
In the capital Harare, a woman was fatally attacked by a crocodile on Thursday as she crossed a stream, while a boy escaped with injuries in another attack in the south-eastern district of Chiredzi.
