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Iga Paul was doing what most 2-year-olds do on Sunday afternoons: He was playing outside his house.
But just over 800 meters from the little boy’s Ugandan home was Lake Edward, one of the smallest bodies of water in the Great Rift Valley, home to huge, hungry creatures.
On December 4, a hippo emerged from the lake at around 3pm local time and partially swallowed Iga in a highly unusual land attack for the area, according to Ugandan police.
A bystander who witnessed the ambush began throwing stones at the hippo in an attempt to stop the attack. Finally, the hippo became frightened by the human aggressor, spat the child out before retreating into the lake.
“It took the bravery of one Chrispas Bagonza, who was nearby, to save the victim after he stoned the hippo and scared it, causing it to release it from its mouth,” Ugandan police wrote in a statement .
“This is the first incident of its kind where a hippo wandered away from Lake Edward and attacked a small child,” police added.
Iga was taken to a nearby clinic for his injuries and later transferred to Bwera hospital in western Uganda for treatment. He was vaccinated against rabies and has since been released to the care of his parents, authorities said.
“Although the hippo was spooked back into the lake, all residents near animal sanctuaries and habitats should be aware that wild animals are very dangerous,” the police statement said. “Wild animals instinctively see humans as a threat and any interaction can cause them to act strangely or aggressively.”
Hippos are the third largest land animal in the world and live primarily in the rivers, lakes and swamps of eastern, central and southern sub-Saharan Africa, according to Virunga National Park, located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In Africa, hippos kill about 500 people each year, according to National Geographic, and are considered one of the world’s deadliest mammals. They are twice as deadly as lions. The probability of a hippo attack being fatal is between 29 and 87 percent, according to research published in 2020 in the journal Oxford Medical Case Reports.
In 2017, a Detroit woman was killed while on an African safari with her family. Carol Sue Kirken, 75, was attacked by a hippo while on vacation in Tanzania, according to the Detroit News. He died quickly in the arms of his son Robert, according to his obituary.
Hippo attack survivor Kristen Yaldor told ABC News in 2019 that a hippo pulled her underwater while canoeing with her husband on the Zambezi River to celebrate her 37th birthday.
The hippo grabbed Yaldor’s leg tightly and slammed her into the water for about 45 seconds. Yaldor said she pulled the hippo’s mouth and it let her go. His femur was broken and he underwent seven surgeries to repair his right leg when he returned to the United States.
“[I] I didn’t get a chance to scream, it was so fast,” Yaldor said.