2 die in hippo attacks

NAIROBI, Kenya — A Chinese tourist was attacked and killed by a hippo while taking pictures on the edge of Lake Naivasha in Kenya’s Rift Valley, just hours after a local fisherman was mauled to death in the same area, authorities said Sunday.

“The man was bitten on the chest and his injuries were serious, and he died minutes after he was retrieved from the lake,” said Gideon Kibunja, the head of criminal investigations in Rift Valley.

A second Chinese tourist was injured in

“The man was bitten on the chest and his injuries were serious, and he died minutes after he was retrieved from the lake.”

Gideon Kibunja, the head of criminal investigations in Rift Valley

the incident Saturday night and received treatment in the hospital in Naivasha, 56 miles southeast of Nairobi, the Kenya Wildlife Service said in a statement.

In the same area, a Kenyan fisherman was attacked by another hippo a few miles from where the incident with the Chinese occurred, a police official said.

The deaths brought to six the number people who have been killed by hippos around Lake Naivasha this year.

Wildlife service spokesman Paul Udoto said the circumstances surrounding the attack on the two Chinese were not clear. He said attacks on tourists are rare because they usually are protected by guides.

He said hippos and lone African buffaloes pose the greatest danger to humans, and there have been many attacks in which civilians and even rangers have lost their lives.