Lions kill man

HARARE (AP):

A pride of lions fatally mauled a tourist while he showered under a tree as darkness fell at an unfenced campsite in a nature reserve, a conservationist said yesterday. Peter Evershed, a 59-year-old Zimbabwean businessman, was attacked by five lions at the Chitake Springs bush camp, a wildlife viewing area near the Mana Pools nature reserve, said Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force head Johnny Rodrigues.

Evershed was the last of his group of family and friends to take a shower Saturday. They heard Evershed scream and raced to the showers but he was already dead from a gash to the throat, Rodrigues said. The lions retreated only after a safari operator pulled up in a vehicle with its headlights on and fired shots into the air, Rodrigues told Zimbabwe Herald Online. Rodrigues said a surge in hunting amid Zimbabwe's economic meltdown has made animals more "traumatised" and dangerous to humans, though lions are generally not killed by poachers.