13-year-old boy falls victim to crocodile

A crocodile dragged a 13-year-old Zimbabwean teenager into a river, The Zimbabwean reports .

The incident occurred at around 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 23. The teenager, Lewis Mpofu, was last seen by friends. According to them, the boy was dragged underwater by a crocodile. However, adults believe that Mpofu may not have fallen victim to the predator, but simply drowned.

"We don't know if he drowned or was attacked by a crocodile. The children who reported the incident said the crocodile pulled him down from a tree, but the trees were only a few metres away. We only found his clothes and a little further away we saw a big crocodile," said village chief Elmoni Moyo. He added that crocodiles are common in the river when the water level is high, as it was on Sunday.

By Monday morning, police had not yet arrived at the scene to comment on the incident. The boy's relatives and other villagers had gathered at the river. With no trace of Mpofu's body found, Moyo called on professional divers to help search for him and for authorities to conduct emergency response training in the villages.

Earlier it was reported that in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan a four-meter crocodile attacked a ten-year-old boy. The incident occurred when the child jumped into a river.