South African man 'eaten' by crocodiles during hunt in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

A South African hunter is believed to have been eaten by crocodiles after he went missing during a safari hunt in Zimbabwe.

44-year-old Scott van Zyl, who owns a professional hunting company, disappeared last Friday on the banks of the Limpopo River in Zimbabwe, British news portal The Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

The dogs he was hunting with returned without him and his rifle and personal items were intact in his pickup truck.

A search team traced his tracks to the banks of the river and found his backpack.

Police and park authorities decided to shoot two suspected Nile crocodiles and “found what could possibly be human remains in them”, a member of the search party told The Telegraph.

The remains are reportedly being tested by forensic experts to verify if they belong to Scott van Zyl.

Crocodile attacks are common near river banks with at least four people killed in Zimbabwe in the past month.

In March, a 19-year-old Mozambican football player Estevao Alberto Gino was killed by a crocodile along the Zambezi river in western Mozambique.

“The crocodile came out of the water abruptly and took him by the waist. After that, the animal ran back into the water,” the founder and coach of his amateur side club, Eduardo Carvalho told the media.