{"id":213871,"date":"2026-05-01T10:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/213871\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T10:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:47:11","slug":"crocs-block-river-hunt-for-missing-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/213871\/","title":{"rendered":"Crocs block river hunt for missing man!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/531996f0ab3943989978e2ee9f9ac8c7.jpg\" alt=\"Police have resorted to use drone and helicopter to search for missing man.\" height=\"768\" width=\"1024\"\/><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n                    Police have resorted to use drone and helicopter to search for missing man.&#13;\n                <\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_cax8s_3\">THE SEARCH and rescue team has resorted to using alternative methods to locate a businessman (59) believed to have been washed away in the Crocodile River in Komatipoort.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_cax8s_3\">Mpumalanga police spokesman Colonel Mavela Masondo said a drone and a helicopter had been dispatched to search for the missing man.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_cax8s_3\">He said the team wasn&#8217;t able to go into the river due to an infestation of crocodiles and hippos.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_cax8s_3\">&#8220;It&#8217;s difficult for the search team to get inside the water because there&#8217;s an infestation of crocodiles and hippos. Our team is using a drone and a helicopter to search for the man. Once it gets dark, the search stops and will continue on the following day,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_cax8s_3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.snl24.com\/dailysun\/news\/heavy-rains-flood-n14-as-roads-close-across-north-west-20260430\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ALSO READ:\u00a0Flood chaos shuts down major North West roads!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_cax8s_3\">According to police, the man was alone when he tried to drive his Ford Ranger bakkie across a low-lying bridge over the Komati River on Tuesday 28 April. <\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_cax8s_3\">The vehicle became trapped in the rising water.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Police have resorted to use drone and helicopter t\" data-smallsrc=\"https:\/\/cdn.24.co.za\/files\/Cms\/General\/d\/13100\/abc64424d9ef45ecb019d2d2ed7c969c.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2d38bacd510e4babadea9c746c4aac48.jpg\" title=\"Police have resorted to use drone and helicopter to search for missing man.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Police have resorted to use drone and helicopter to search for missing man.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Police have resorted to use drone and helicopter t\" data-smallsrc=\"https:\/\/cdn.24.co.za\/files\/Cms\/General\/d\/13100\/683bc3ff4a23459fb01b1c0366494dbf.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8942cf9c1528430d90a7200a33902011.jpg\" title=\"Police have resorted to use drone and helicopter to search for missing man.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Police have resorted to use drone and helicopter to search for missing man.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_cax8s_3\">It&#8217;s suspected that the driver exited the vehicle and was then carried away by the strong current.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_cax8s_3\">&#8220;Police were alerted to a vehicle stuck in the river and immediately dispatched the Search and Rescue Team. Upon arrival, officers found the Ford Ranger abandoned on the bridge with no occupant inside,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_cax8s_3\">The incident occurred at the same river where two members of the South African National Defence Force were previously swept away in December 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Police have resorted to use drone and helicopter to search for missing man.&#13; THE SEARCH and rescue&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[52],"tags":[108763,108764,108765,108380,131],"class_list":["post-213871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-africa","tag-crocodile-river","tag-komati-river","tag-komatipoort","tag-missing-businessman","tag-south-africa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116498926513104066","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}