Uganda: A hungry hippo swallowed a 2-year-old boy alive in Uganda only to spit him back out again after an onlooker began pelting at the animal with stones. The unnamed toddler was playing by himself near his home on the shores of a lake in the town of Katwe Kabatoro on Sunday when the hungry hippo grabbed him with its massive jaws, Capital FM Uganda reported.
The unnamed toddler was playing by himself near his home on the shores of a lake in the town of Katwe Kabatoro on Sunday when the hippo grabbed him with his huge jaws. “This is the first such kind of incident where a hippo strayed out of Lake Edward and attacked a young child,” Ugandan Police said in a statement.
Before the child was gulped down by the animal, Chrispas Bagonza, the bystander began chucking rocks at the animal, causing it to “vomit” the boy back up.
The little boy was rushed to a nearby clinic for medical treatment to injuries he sustained in the attack.
He was then transferred to a hospital in the nearby town of Bwera, which lies close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was given a vaccine for rabies as a precaution and then discharged and released back to his parents.
Reportedly, Hippos are estimated to kill at least 500 people a year in Africa, chomping down on their victims with tusks that can be more than a foot long.
The probability of a hippo attack being fatal is between 29% and 87%, according to research published in the journal Oxford Medical Case Reports.
(With inputs from agencies)
