South Africa has called out the police to join the hunt for as many as 10,000 crocodiles on the loose after escaping from a farm during floods and being washed into one of southern Africa’s biggest rivers, officials said on Friday. According to reports during the week, a small farm in South Africa is dealing with the recovery of about 15,000 escaped crocodiles.
Officials in Pont Drift say the reptiles have since been spotted downstream when they got loose from the Rakwena farm and into the Limpopo River. “We will catch them as the farmers call us and say there are crocodiles. In Weipe there are many and I heard there were crocodiles in Musina on the school’s football field,” said Zane Langman, the son of Johan Boshoff, who owns the farm.
“At night time we have more success. It is much easier to see them,” Zane Langman, whose in-laws own the farm, told news channel ENCA.
Most of the crocodiles are less then two meters (78 inches) long. The area is home to several farms that supply crocodile skins to the fashion industry.
“We are working as a team with the stakeholders,” police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said on Friday. There have been no reports of injuries caused by the escaped reptiles.
Police in Zimbabwe, on the other side of the Limpopo, also issued warnings to people to avoid going into the water because of the crocodile threat.
Heavy rains and flooding have claimed at least 20 lives in Mozambique and South Africa and led to the evacuations of thousands.
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