Brit, 63, mauled by hippo in bloody attack as he was left clamped in beast’s jaws & thrown like a rag doll
A BRITISH tourist has told how he miraculously survived being attacked by A HIPPO.
Roland Cherry, 63, was on safari with his wife in Zambia when the 1.5 ton beast flipped over their canoe and dragged the marketing director to the bottom of the river.
The hippo terrifyingly grabbed Roland in its jaws, mauling him, before flinging him into the air like “a ragdoll”.
The experienced canoeist was rushed to hospital for treatment before stunned medics told him “most people don’t survive hippo attack”.
Roland needed seven operations in a fortnight following the bruising attack – but incredibly says he does NOT hate hippos.
He said: “I am conscious we were in their territory, but I’m not very fond of what one did to me.”
Reliving the horror attack, Mr Cherry said: “When the hippo first hit the canoe, there was a massive crash, much like a car crash really.
“The canoe reared up in the air, tossing us into the water.
“I remember surfacing, realising my shoulder was quite badly injured and I realised I’d dislocated it from the outset and the consequences were that I couldn’t actually swim.
“The instructions were to swim to safety but I couldn’t swim so I was really a sitting duck, trying to swim with one arm which was never going to end well – and then it grabbed me.”
He was then dragged to the bottom of the river.
Mr Cherry explained: “I do remember thinking ‘oh no, what a way to go… I’m not ready to die’ and I thought this was it, because nobody survives hippo attacks.”
He was dropped in shallow water on the bank but was then grabbed again.
“We know subsequently from fellow travellers I was grabbed again and thrown through the air like a rag doll but towards the bank which was the godsend.
“I remember looking down at my legs thinking ‘that’s not good’. There was bits of flesh sticking out of my torn shorts and blood over my abdomen.”
He added: “I was in its jaws and I didn’t see it once – we have eye witness accounts of that happening – but I was never conscious of that.”
A rescue team put him on a motor boat and rushed him back to camp.
Mr Cherry suffered a 10-inch (25cm) wound to his abdomen, plus a thigh injury and dislocated shoulder.
Hospital staff in Johannesburg, South Africa, told him if the wounds had been slightly deeper he may not have survived.
Mr Cherry and wife Shirley, from Warwickshire, were on the dream trip when they were targeted on the Kafue River, in June.