A crocodile that blocked a hospital entrance in the town of Hwange in Zimbabwe was shot dead by Wildlife authorities on Tuesday.
Tinashe Farawo Parks and wildlife authority spokesman verified the incident and added 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 (6 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.
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