Clube Atletico Mineiro de Tete said on Monday that their footballer has been snatched and killed by a crocodile while training along the banks of Zambezi river,
Estevao Alberto Gino, 19, a young Mozambican who played for the Mozambique’s second division club lived near the river in the western province of Tete. The incident happened last Thursday.
“On that night, he was training and after jogging he stretched his hands into the water and that was when the crocodile caught him,” coach Eduardo Carvalho told AFP.
Two neighbours who witnessed the attack estimated the crocodile to have been about five-metres (16-feet) long, and “they could not do anything” to save him, said Carvalho.
Crocodile attacks are common along the Zambezi river.
Local police spokesman Leonel Muchina confirmed the incident to AFP saying the footballer’s body has not yet been found.