A crocodile that had brought terror to the community of Siloam in the Nzhelele was hunted down and put down after many hours of searching.

The crocodile, measuring nearly two metres, caused a scare in the community after being spotted by passersby in a small pond not far from the Siloam Hospital. The incident happened on Friday morning.

News of a crocodile in the middle of a village spread like wildfire and local villagers and others from the surrounding villages swarmed to the area in no time.

Many in the community believe that the presence of the crocodile was as a result of the recent floods in Vhembe,  forcing wild animals to relocate inland where the water levels were lower. When the waters subsided, some of those animals could not make it back to their own locality .

Only last week, a lion was spotted close to villages in the Nzhelele area. Two weeks ago, more than 15000 crocodiles were washed away from their enclosure at Rakwena Crocodile farm on the South Africa-Botswana border in Limpopo. Some of those have not been accounted for so far although many have been recaptured.

The Siloam crocodile was spotted by a woman with three of her friends who had come from withdrawing money from an ATM at the gate of the hospital. They came face to face with the crocodile, which was basking in the sun.

Word of the crocodile spread like wildfire. Within a short space of time, the area was swarming with curious onlookers who wanted to have a glimpse of the dreaded creature. Some vowed that they would not go home until it was found and killed.

"At first we thought it was a car bumper, but we were shocked when the bumper started moving away into the water, and that was when we realized it was a crocodile. I have never been so scared. We rushed to a car wash that is not far from the pond, shouting that there was a crocodile."

People from the car wash came in their numbers but the crocodile had disappeared into the water.

"We summoned the police who, together with conservationists, organized that the water be pumped out of the pond," said Violet Tharini of Dopeni-Tshipise Ha Matsharini. Nature conservation officials and the police struggled the whole day to drain the water from the pond.

The crocodile was only found late in the evening and it put up a fight, which forced officials to put it down.

"We are relieved that the evil creature has been killed and taken away by the police. Evil people could take its brain, which is regarded as very poisonous, and kill or harm people in the village. Now that it is gone, our children will be safe, but we are concerned that it might have not been alone and there might be others in the vicinity," said Mashudu Mudau, a local resident.

Meanwhile, the police at Siloam have sent a warning to communities in the Nzhelele area not to venture into pools of water, even if it is just rain water.

"Many crocodiles have washed away from rivers, and from information we are gathering, there are many crocodiles out there which might be a danger to the community. Wwe spent the whole day looking for the crocodile, and when we found it, it put up a fierce struggle, so that we were forced to put it down as it had become a danger to the community," said W/O Edzisani Tharaga of the Siloam police.