Cops join hunt for Limpopo crocs

JOHANNESBURG — The South African police have been called up to the hunt for as many as 10 000 crocodiles on the loose after escaping from a farm during floods in Limpopo province and being washed into one of southern Africa’s biggest rivers, officials said yesterday.

Crocodile farmers, locals and police have trapped thousands of the reptiles, using plastic bands to tie their legs behind their backs and then piling them into pick-up trucks.

The flood gates at the Rakwena Crocodile Farm close to the Botswana and Zimbabwe borders were opened on Sunday because it was feared that rising flood waters would crush the reptiles, releasing some 15 000 crocodiles into the Limpopo River.

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