An 18-year-old man from Bubi District, Matabeleland North, escaped death by a whisker after he was attacked by “angry” elephants.
Tinashe Ncube was saved from being trampled by the jumbos after a relative distracted the charging animals with a wrapping cloth she was wearing.
The woman reportedly waved the cloth in the air and threw it to the ground thereby causing the elephants to leave the injured teen and trample on the fabric.
According to Advent Nkomo, a teacher at Lukala Secondary School, Tinashe was with a female relative on Wednesday when they encountered the elephants.
The two elephants had been provoked by students at Lukala Secondary School as they were passing by.
Nkomo said the elephants had gone their way after the provocation but then met Ncube and his relative who didn’t know the elephants were angry. Said Nkomo:
Tinashe was with a woman who is his relative and when the elephant started to attack him, the woman took off her wrapping cloth (intsaro) and threw it on the ground.
The two elephants left him and went to attack that cloth.
There are a lot of elephants in this area and now we are fearing that they will harm the students since they don’t know how dangerous these elephants are.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) Head Of Corporate Communications, Tinashe Farawo said:
It happened yesterday. I can confirm that a young man was injured by two elephants, the investigations are still in progress.
The information we have right now is from the witnesses, our team is working on it.