By Melanie-Ann Feris
A Boksburg woman, taking wildlife photographs on a family holiday, was fatally trampled by a raging female hippo when she stopped to photograph the animal's calf.
Annatjie Mienie, 35, and her husband Dannie, with her sister Marie and her family, had just spent their first night at the Kruger Park Lodge, in Hazyview, Mpumalanga, when the attack happened on Saturday.
The group were on their annual week-long family vacation at the timeshare lodge.
Ben Nell, Mr Mienie's brother-in-law, said they had been on an early-morning walk.
Mr Mienie and his 12-year-old daughter Anina were walking behind the rest, taking photographs.
He said Mrs Mienie had apparently been standing near the dam, videotaping a small crocodile, when she turned her camera on a hippo calf. It was then that the calf's enraged mother attacked her.
"My daughter ran to us, screaming that a hippo had attacked her. Annatjie's husband and I ran back to look for her. We called her and she answered us. She had bruises all over her body. She had a broken leg and a lot of wounds," Nell said.
Mrs Mienie was rushed to a doctor, who performed emergency first aid. She was then taken to the Nelspruit MediClinic about 70km away, in a desperate bid to save her life, but she died on the way to the hospital.