Hippo drags boy to his death in lake as horrified onlookers pelt it with stones

 The boy died after being dragged into the lake [Photo: Caron Steele / SWNS.com]

A hippopotamus dragged a child to his death as crowds threw rocks at it in a desperate attempt to save the boy. The horrifying scene was caught on camera from the edges of Lake Victoria in Kenya. The child had been playing close to the shore in Mbita while people washed their clothes nearby.

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He was suddenly grabbed by the hippo, which dragged him into the murky water. In the footage, he can be seen submerged beneath the surface. Men and women on the banks scream as they launch rocks at the animal. It rears its head back out of the water as sticks and stones rain down on it.

One man can be heard saying 'oh Jesus' as the hippo continuously submerges itself under the water. According to the Kenya Wildlife Service attacks by hippos and crocodiles have increased sharply around Lake Naivasha and the Lake Victoria region in recent months.

In May a man was mauled to death on the shores of Lake Naivasha as he tried to catch some fish. He was the eighth person at that point to be killed by marauding animals in the country since January. "For the last four months, the hippos have been terrorising residents and making it impossible for fishermen to run their errands during the evening," a person living close to the lake told Kenyans.co.ke.

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William Onditi, chairman of Suba South Beach Management Unit Network, told the publication: "There should be officers on standby to tame the animals whenever they move out of the water. "The officers can use their guns to scare them back to the water because civilians don't have the ability to do so because we don't have weapons."