11-year-old wrestles crocodile and gouges out its eyes with bare hands to save her 9-year-old friend: Report

An 11-year-old girl in Zimbabwe has claimed that she wrestled a crocodile and gouged out its eyes to save her 9-year-old friend. 

Rebecca Munkombwe, of the northwestern town of Hwange, said her friend, Latoya Muwani, was attacked by a crocodile last week while swimming in a stream. The sixth-grader heard “screams of help” and immediately ran to the spot where the crocodile had gotten hold of her friend's hand and legs and was pulling her deeper into the waters.

“We had just left the water when we heard Latoya who was left alone swimming near the neck-deep zone screaming that something was biting her hand. Since I was the eldest among the other seven children, I felt the urge to save her. So, I jumped into the water and swam to where she was struggling to float. She was screaming in pain that something was biting and pulling her under,” Munkombwe told the Sunday News. 

Seeing that Muwani was struggling to keep her head above the surface of the stream, Munkombwe dived into the water. She mounted the enormous reptile and started gouging its eyes out till she felt it loosen its grip on her friend's limbs. 

“I jumped on top of the crocodile and started beating it with my bare hands before using my fingers to poke its eyes until it released her. Once she was free, I swam with her to the banks where the other children pulled her out of the water. The crocodile, fortunately, did not attack us after it let off Latoya,” she said. 

A nurse from the hospital where Muwani was admitted, said that she was lucky to have escaped with “mild injuries” and did not sustain any bone fractures due to the crocodile attack. The 11-year-old did not sustain any injuries after her show of bravery. 

Muwani's father described his daughter's survival as miraculous, adding that he was really grateful for her friend's bravery. "For a moment there I thought of the worst before I learned that she had survived after being saved by Rebecca. How she managed to do that I don’t know but am grateful to God," he said.