Man survives fight with croc.
NZPA-Reuter Salisbury A Zimbabwean police officer has described how he wrestled free from a crocodile which gripped his head in its jaws, the "Herald” newspaper has reported. It quoted Superintendent Andrew Theunissen as saying he was swimming in Lake Kariba two weeks ago when the reptile seized him. “My instantaneous impression was of the terrible crunching noise," he said. ‘.‘Seconds later I realised I had been seized by a croc — that my head was in its jaws. The tightening cracking sound grew louder. “I put up my arms and
pulled on the lower jaw with all my strength. The crocodile threshed about wildly, but I hung on and kept on pulling the jaw down. I saw the terrible sight of rows of teeth on the upper jaw. Then suddenly I was free." He was treated in hospital for a fractured cheekbone, cuts to his face and arms, a deep wound in the back of his head and severed finger tendons. The left side of his face is paralysed. Crocodiles kill about 50 people a year in Zimbabwe, most of them women and children working or playing on the shores of rivers and lakes.
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Press, 4 February 1982, Page 6
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198Man survives fight with croc. Press, 4 February 1982, Page 6
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