Fishermen from a village in Senegal are living in fear as attacks by 'killer hippos' have risen dramatically in recent years.
An astounding 25 people from the village of Gouloumbou have been mauled to death by the voracious creatures lurking in a nearby river tributary over the last decade.
Many others have been attacked by the hippos, sometimes on multiple occasions, but managed to survive albeit with gruesome injuries and truly terrifying tales.
The unsettling encounters have grown so frequent that many villagers have stopped fishing altogether for fear of falling victim to the hippos.
"They are evil monsters who attack us night and day," lamented one Senegalese fisherman to the AFP, "because of them, we haven't been fishing."
The situation has had a devastating effect as fishing is one of the few sources of income for the impoverished village.
Their chief has pleaded with authorities to help them cope with the outbreak of angry hippos, but so far has only received the promise of a handful of motorized boats for the fishermen.
However the ostensibly safer fishing vessels may not be enough to quell the bloodthirsty hippos, which have been known to attack boats as well as villagers making use of the waters for drinking and cleaning.
According to the chief, the villagers once had an friendly relationship with the hippos that resided in the river, but clearly something has happened in recent years to disrupt that harmony.
Hopefully some kind of solution to the disruption can be found and the fishermen of Gouloumbou can go back to working on their river without concern for the monstrous creatures 'fishing' for them.
Source: The Telegraph