A one year old boy is dead and 23 people are missing after a hippopotamus charged and capsized a canoe on a river in southern Malawi.
The wooden canoe was carrying 37 people across the Shire River on their way to neighbouring Mozambique when it was hit by the hippo in the Nsanje District on Monday.
Nsanje District Police Commissioner Dominic Mwandira said people havs been rescued with the help of World Food Programme personnel who were working in the area and provided boats for the rescue operation,
The people were feared dead because the search had been going on for more than 24 hours, police spokesperson Agnes Zalakoma said.
Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera sent Minister of Water and Sanitation Abida Mia to the scene.
She said locals told her hippos often caused problems in the area and they wanted authorities to relocate some of the animals
