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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 6 February

Zim villagers pull hunter from jaws of crocodile

Harare - A human chain of villagers pulled a hunter from the jaws of a man-eating crocodile in north-eastern Zimbabwe, state media reported on Monday. Letikuku Sidumbu (32) was attacked by the crocodile while trying to cross the swollen Mubvinzi River in Goromonzi district, about 40km east of Harare, during an early-morning hunting expedition with his uncle. As the crocodile clenched it jaws on his right arm, a human chain of villagers tugged him from its grip in a struggle that also left him with a broken leg and chest and stomach injuries, Sidumbu told the state Herald newspaper from his hospital bed in Harare. Crocodiles are the most dangerous animal to humans in Zimbabwe. In recorded cases last year, they dragged away and ate 13 people, including children, according to the Communal Areas Management Programme, a conservation group. "I called out to my uncle to hit the crocodile with an axe," the Herald quoted Sidumbu saying. But, he said, commotion by the two men's hunting dogs enraged the crocodile. He heard the voices of fellow villagers arriving from nearby Chitana Mafengu to help. Before rescuers dragged him free, "one thing was clear, that they wanted to salvage at least a piece of my flesh for burial should the crocodile get the better of them", Sidumbu said. The Communal Areas conservation group, in its annual report for 2005, said wild animals killed at least 27 people last year in cases reported across Zimbabwe, but scores of other attacks in remote areas would not have been recorded. Elephants, hippopotamuses and buffaloes accounted for most other attacks. The Herald did not say when the hunter was attacked. Sidumbu said he knew the river was crocodile infested, but "I had safely crossed it many times before, especially at dawn".

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