Girl, 3, killed and eaten by crocodile

A crocodile has killed and eaten a three-year-old girl in Zimbabwe.

The girl became the third person to be killed by a crocodile in her family.

Lubelihle Nyoni was snatched from the banks of the Zambezi River in Hwange, northern Zimbabwe, on 22 February.

The girl had been playing with her eight-year-old friend Mawili Reno when the crocodile attacked.

According to News24, relative Margi Reno told the Southern Eye: "I was doing something some few metres from the river when I heard screams before I lifted up my eyes and saw a big crocodile snatching Luba from the banks, where they were bathing.

"I froze for a moment as my mind could not comprehend what I had seen, but then I recovered and rushed to Mawili, who seemed frozen to the spot."

Villagers said the child's grandfather and uncle were also taken by crocodiles several years earlier.

There has been a spate of crocodile attacks on humans in the area in recent months.

According to Times Live, this was the third attack on young people in Zimbabwe in two months.

On 24 February, a 17-year-old boy herding cattle was taken by a crocodile in the Mutirikwi River.

And a 16-year-old girl was snatched by a crocodile in the Runde River in southern Zimbabwe on New Year's Day.