One bride was not about to allow a crocodile attack interrupt her wedding.
Zanele Ndlovu, a former national tennis player, is considering herself lucky to be alive after she lost her arm during a crocodile attack while kayaking with her fiancé in the Zambezi River, the Daily Mail reports.
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Ndlovu, 25, and her fiancé, Jamie Fox, had reportedly been kayaking in the Zambezi River above Victoria Falls, presumably visiting the scenic Falls to get married, when their inflatable kayak was attacked by a crocodile.
“They were in an inflatable boats, and the crocodile attacked their vessel and in the process deflated it, before attacking her. During the attack the crocodile gripped her arm and ripped it off while her partner made frantic efforts to save her. They are lucky to be alive,” a friend of the couple described the attack.
The crocodile managed to tear off Ndlovu’s right arm and bite her left hand before Fox was able to rescue her, applying a makeshift tourniquet before she was rushed to Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Despite her injuries, Ndlovu was determined not to miss her wedding day, putting on her white sleeveless wedding dress and holding pink roses to walk down the aisle in the hospital chapel, where the ceremony ended up being held.
“It is a quite remarkable love story and it really does show their love for each other. The crocodile attack made no difference,” a witness of the ceremony said. “Their feelings and love for each other are even stronger than before if anything.”
While Ndlovu lost her arm in the attack, it is believed that she will still be able to play tennis as she is left-handed.
Ndlovu’s attack is the not the only close call that a bride has had. In December, a honeymooning groom filmed the terrifying moment his wife was attacked by a shark.
Sarah Illig was vacationing with her husband, Evan Carroll, in the Caribbean when she decided to take a dip in the ocean with sharks, an attraction offered at the resort they were staying at. But the swim quickly turned dangerous when one of the giants latched onto her arm.
“I felt a whoosh of water, something clamped down on my arm and I assumed my husband was playing a prank on me,” Illig said. “Less than a second later I realized how much it hurt and looked past where my goggles were blocking my side vision to see the shark (bigger than myself) latched on to my arm. I pulled away and got out of there.”
Thankfully, the sharks that the newlywed had been swimming with were nurse sharks, which don’t typically attack humans and on the rare occasions that they do, the damage is minimal. Illig only suffered minor injuries and was treated on site.
