A bystander who witnessed the ambush began throwing stones at the hippo in an attempt to stop the attack. Eventually, the hippo was scared off by the human assailant, spitting the young boy out before retreating back to 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 the victim from its mouth,” the Ugandan Police Force wrote in a statement.
“This is the first such kind of incident where a hippo strayed out of the Lake Edward and attacked a young child,” the police statement added.
Iga was taken to a nearby clinic for his injuries and later transferred to Bwera Hospital in west Uganda for further treatment. He was given the rabies vaccine and has since been discharged to the care of his parents, authorities said.
“Although the hippo was scared back into the lake, all residents near animal sanctuaries and habitats should know that wild animals are very dangerous,” the police statement reads. “Instinctually, wild animals see humans as a threat and any interaction can cause them to act strangely or aggressively.”
Hippos are the world’s third largest land animal and predominantly live in rivers, lakes and swamps in eastern, central and southern sub-Saharan Africa, according to Virunga National Park, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In Africa, hippos kill an estimated 500 people every 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 percent and 87 percent, according to research published in 2020 from the journal Oxford Medical Case Reports.
In 2017, a Detroit woman was killed during an African safari with her family. Carol Sue Kirken, 75, was attacked by a hippo while on vacation in Tanzania, according to Detroit News. She quickly died in the arms of her son Robert, according to her obituary.
Hippo attack survivor, Kristen Yaldor, told ABC News in 2019 that a hippo pulled her underwater while she was canoeing with her husband in the Zambezi River to celebrate her 37th birthday.
The hippo took a tight grip of Yaldor’s leg and thrashed her around in the water for about 45 seconds. Yaldor said she tugged at the hippo’s mouth and it let her go. Her femur was broken and she underwent seven surgeries to repair her right leg when she returned to the United States.
“[I] didn’t have a chance to scream, it was just so quick,” Yaldor said.