Harare - A three-year-old Zimbabwean girl has become the third person in her family to be killed by a crocodile, the Southern Eye newspaper reported on Thursday.
Lubelihle Nyoni was snatched from the banks of the Zambezi River in Hwange, northern Zimbabwe, on February 22, the newspaper said.
Villagers said the child's grandfather and uncle were killed by crocodiles several years ago.
Nyoni was playing with her eight-year-old friend Mawili Reno when the crocodile attacked.
Relative Margi Reno told the Southern Eye: “I was doing something some few metres from the river when I heard screams before I lifted up my eyes and saw a big crocodile snatching Luba from the banks, where they were bathing.
“I froze for a moment as my mind could not comprehend what I had seen, but then I recovered and rushed to Mawili, who seemed frozen to the spot.”
The child's body had not yet been recovered. This was the third crocodile attack on juveniles reported in just over two months in Zimbabwe.
A 17-year-old boy herding cattle was reportedly snatched by a crocodile in the Mutirikwi River in south-eastern Zimbabwe on February 24.
A 16-year-old girl was taken by a crocodile in the Runde River, also in southern Zimbabwe, on New Year's Day.
Sapa