By Own Correspondent| A 32 year old Kariba woman was on Tuesday morning killed by a crocodile in Lake Kariba at Ndomo fishing camp while she was doing her laundry.

The late Catherine Masingauta was mauled to death a few meters from the compound.

Fishermen who work at Ndomo fishing camp said when the deceased arrived, they cautioned her to be wary of crocodiles in the river.

However, it is alleged that Masingauta was attacked nearly 20 minutes after she started washing her clothes and she died.

The fishermen noticed that the deceased had disappeared from where she was doing her laundry but could see the buckets she had been using floating in the water.

One of the fisherman, Martin Kanyara said he became suspicious that the deceased had disappeared and could no longer be seen from where he was but her buckets and clothes were still visible.

“It was unfortunate that she was mauled and had drowned. This forced us to conduct a search all over,” said Kanyara, revealing that they located a crocodile about 100 meters away from where the deceased had been washing her clothes.

“The crocodile was near the shore-line and we then knew that she had been attacked,” he said.

Ndomo community quickly mobilised each other and they peddled their dingy boats in search of the body.

Members of the community covered the area with nets to prevent the crocodile from going  into the deep waters.

Officials from the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority later arrived and shot the crocodile and the body of the deceased was retrieved before being taken to Kariba hospital for a post mortem.

Officials from the National Parks however encouraged communities who reside near water bodies such as Lake Kariba to be wary of crocodiles.