Holiday Briton gored by charging buffalo
A DREAM holiday on a palmfronded island turned into a nightmare for a British tourist when she was attacked by a water buffalo.
Fiona Childs was walking to the beach when out of the jungle came – a charging male water buffalo.
The 47-year-old teacher was left covered in blood after the animal butted her to the ground then gored her as she lay screaming.
She suffered serious injuries to her shins and her thighs as she tried to kick the beast away.
Ms Childs, from Crawley, West Sussex, was holidaying on the Cambodian island of Koh Rong Samloem after her arrival last Saturday.
She was headed for the beach through a forest when she was attacked around 10.20am on Tuesday morning.
Local villagers helped Ms Childs before paramedics arrived and she was ferried to hospital in Sihanoukville, a coastal city on Cambodia’s mainland, where she is now recovering.
Aggressive
Why the animal attacked is not known. Water buffalo are normally placid but can become aggressive if provoked or if they are protecting their young. They can weigh up to 1,200lb.
Police and army officers later tracked down the animal which had escaped from a nearby farm.
Expats in the region said the water buffalo had been wandering around the jungle and beach for two weeks before goring Ms Childs. It had charged at locals 10 days ago.
Army General Lok Chum Neang said the buffalo’s owner, a local farmer, told him the creature was one “he could not manage” and asked the army to “kill, kill, kill” the creature.
But it was not known whether or not the animal has been put down.
Its owner has agreed to cover Ms Child’s medical expenses.
The teacher is understood to have been taking a holiday from her job at the St Andrews International School near Bangkok in Thailand. The idyllic island of Koh Rong Samloem in Cambodia where teacher Fiona Childs, inset, was holidaying Bleeding from her wounds, Ms Childs on a stretcher after the attack