One of them made its way into a local school, another visited a sports field

Jan 25, 2013 07:06 GMT  ·  By

South Africa was recently hit by heavy rain which caused the Limpopo river to flood the regions found in its proximity. Due to the fact that this river also flooded a local crocodile farm, as many as 15,000 such reptiles have managed to escape.

More precisely, the reptiles were able to make a swim for it after some of the farm's employees decided that opening the animals' pens in order to release some of the excess water might not be such a bad idea.

Needles to say, the people living close to the Rakwena Crocodile Farm were asked to remain indoors.

This is because Nile crocodiles, which can grow to be as much as 16 feet long (roughly 4.8 meters), do not shy away from attacking people and therefore constitute a major threat to the human communities living nearby the Limpopo river, Daily Mail reports.

Furthermore, these reptiles are known to feed on livestock and other domestic animals, which is why efforts are being made to locate and catch them as soon as possible.

According to the same source, one crocodile even made its way into a local school, whereas another was spotted on a sports field.

The people in charge of running the Rakwena Crocodile Farm maintain that, up until now, they have been quite successful in returning some of the animals to their enclosures. Thus, they say that several thousands of these escapees now find themselves back at the farm.

However, this does not change the fact that quite a lot of them are still on the loose. Hopefully, it will not be long until all the animals are safely returned to the farm.

For those unaware, such commercial crocodile farms more often than not breed the animals for the sole purpose of killing them later on and taking their skin, which is used to make bags, shoes and handbags.

Because of this, animal rights activists are doing their best to outlaw such farms.