Featured Image Credit: National Geographic
Topics: World News, Animals
Kit Roberts
Two kayakers caught the horrifying moment a crocodile snapped up their friend on camera.
In December 2010, Chris Korbulic, Ben Stookesberry and Hendri Coetzee went on a kayaking trip down the Lukuga River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to try and become the first people to boat the whitewater on the river. Alas, only two out of three of the friends would make it out the other side of the trip to return to dry land.
While paddling down the river, the trio of experienced kayakers made sure to stay as close together as possible to do their best to ward off any attacks from hippos or crocodiles.
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However, when they reached a part of the water measuring around 100 feet wide, they ended up getting slightly more separated - around five feet apart.
Coetzee was paddling in the centre, while Stookesberry was at the front and Korbulic just behind him when suddenly, a crocodile slithered from the water and launched directly at the left side of Coetzee's boat.
At the time, Korbulic told the Associated Press: "I glanced over and just in my periphery I saw the crocodile come out of the water, and he got onto Coetzee's left side - just the left shoulder with its mouth.
"The crocodile just pulled him right underwater. I think we both were just in complete shock and disbelief, and absolutely horrified at what had just happened."
The crocodile's launching caused Coetzee's boat to capsize and the reptile dragged the outdoorsman and author from the cockpit of the boat.
Stookesberry and Korbulic could only look on in horror, quickly realising there was nothing they could really do to help try and save their friend.
So, fearing that the crocodile would come back for them, they paddled downstream to a nearby village.
There, the residents told them that the reptile had likely been around '15 feet long and two tonnes in weight'.
Not long after the attack, the boat was recovered from the river by the residents, and it didn't have even have a mark on it to indicate what had happened.
The story of Coetzee's death was recounted in a documentary by National Geographic, Man-Eater of The Congo.
The documentary included footage of the attack, though the exact moment that the crocodile attacked Coetzee is not included.
When they arrived at a nearby village a visibly shaken Korbulic and Stookesberry radioed for help. Stookesberry said: "This is Ben, can you hear me? We’ve had a terrible accident here. Hendri just got taken by a crocodile."