Thirteen-year-old Owen Chianga and his friend were attacked by two crocodiles last Thursday around lunchtime in the Save River near Birchenough Bridge. The friend’s father managed to wrestle his child out of the jaws of one crocodile, he told the Manica Post.
But it was too late for Chianga, who’d already been dragged away, the report said.
The Manica Post said Chianga was “trying to supplement income at home given that his physically challenged father was failing to send him to school.”
The two boys had been lured further into the river than was normal because they’d seen some dead fish floating, according to Chauruva Ruzivo, the father of Chianga’s friend. He said: “Some people had applied a chemical to kill the fish.”
It was not clear what the chemical was.
Apart from locals poisoning fish, there have been reports that the Save River has been heavily polluted by diamond miners in nearby Marange. In 2014, up to 1 000 cattle were reported to have died in nearby districts due to pollution in the Save. The heavily-tainted water has upped fears of a cancer spike in the area, the Zimbabwean newspaper reported last year.
Last year tourists cruising on the Zambezi River were horrified to see a crocodile eating a human body.