US volunteer killed in Caiman attack

Nov 20, 2019 News

What started as refreshing dip in the cool Berbice River ended in a horror show when a US citizen met his unfortunate demise on Sunday.
Dead is 59-year-old Carlos Santana, a volunteer with the Kimbia Adventist Academy, located at Kimbia, a small community located in the Upper Berbice River.

Dead: Carlos Santana

Another volunteer at the academy, David Gates, told Kaieteur News what transpired.
According to him, Carlos Santana and a 10-year-old boy were at the river front, near the Kimbia Primary School stelling when the former decided to take a dip in the water.
Gates, who was on the other side of river, observed a commotion where Santana was swimming and rushed over to see what was amiss.
“At first I thought they were joking but after a while, it didn’t seem like a joke”.
When he arrived, he was met with the frantic 10-year-old who told him that Santana was bitten by a Caiman and dragged under water.
“The child was scared and kept screaming alligator bite him and pulled him under the water.”
According to Gates, Santana tried wrestling with the animal but to no avail. He stated that the residents from the community came out and scoured the area for Sanata’s body.
Thirty minutes later, they were successful and retrieved his body from the river. According to Gates, the caiman ripped Sanata’s arm to mere shreds. From images seen by Kaieteur News, the man’s face was also bitten.
His body was taken to the Arokium Funeral Home to await an autopsy.
This attack by a caiman is considered a rare one.
The Caiman is a carnivorous reptile that lives in lakes, seasonally flooded savannas of the Amazon basin, and in other freshwater habitats of South America.
It is a large species, growing to at least five metres and possibly up to six metres in length, which makes it the second largest reptile of its kind.

(Shikema Dey )

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