A mum was sitting on a bench with her two-year-old daughter outside the crocodiles enclosure at a Cambridgeshire zoo when she heard a loud scream from the crocodile enclosure where a boy, 3, was seriously injured and later airlifted to hospital.
A stunned mother heard a chilling scream coming from the crocodile enclosure where a three-year-old boy was seriously injured, and subsequently witnessed him being airlifted to hospital. The mother was seated on a bench with her two-year-old daughter outside the enclosure at Johnsons at Old Hurst zoo in Huntingdon on Thursday (June 18) when she heard a loud scream, believed to have come from an adult.
She also disclosed how she had experienced a ‘sixth sense’ earlier in the day, before visiting the zoo, with a gut feeling ‘not to go into the crocodile house’. The mother, who is in her 20s, told SWNS: “We were sitting on a bench in the park between the bear and the crocodile enclosure. I was on the phone with my dad when it was all happening as my daughter was calling the capybaras happy-baras.
“We sat there and heard a loud scream. Never in a million years did I think someone was in with the crocodiles. The whole zoo went really quiet and it felt really eerie.”
The mother said that shortly afterwards, she and other visitors were asked to vacate an open area adjacent to the enclosure because “there had been an incident.”
She said that within ten minutes of the scream, she heard sirens and two police vans, and four police cars arrived at the zoo where she was standing outside. She added: “We then saw the air ambulance come over within about 10 minutes. We thought there had been a road accident.”
The mother then described a “white sheet” being erected between the zoo café and the farm shop, which she believes was used to shield the injured young boy from public view.
She added: “They held up a white sheet in between the farm shop and the cafe so no one could see what was happening. All of the police cars were there too. I think that was out of respect for the family. It felt very eerie and weirdly quiet. I saw four police cars and two police vans.”
The mum also said how fearful she felt leaving the zoo with a child of a similar age to the boy. She said: “My daughter was oblivious to everything because she is so little but it is scary because, what went through my head was, if I hadn’t of stopped to make that call it could have been her.
“The little boy was only three and my daughter is two, it could have been her.”
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