Groom watches hippo kill bride

2003-12-12 07:20

Maranet Jordaan

Cape Town - A Cape bridegroom is in counselling after watching helplessly as a hippopotamus killed his bride in the Okavango Delta while the couple were on honeymoon in Botswana.

Bruce Simpson, 30, and his wife, Janice, 32, were travelling with a guide in a canoe on Tuesday when the hippo overturned their boat.

After the hippo tipped the three out of the boat, Simpson watched helplessly as it closed its jaws on his wife's chest, biting her through her heart and lung, killing her instantly.

The Simpsons were married barely two weeks ago on November 29.

Simpson, who accompanied his wife's body from Botswana on Thursday, was still too shocked to speak to the media.

Janice Simpson's sister, Lauren Salters, said he was "totally devastated".

"He's just shown me six rolls of film that he shot during the five-day honeymoon. He doesn't know how he will go on, but he will, because he knows it is what she would have wanted," she said.

Gabrielle Palmer of Orient Express Safaris, which arranged the Simpsons' tour, said on Thursday that it was the first time in 10 years of the outings at Eagle Island Camp that such a tragedy occurred.

She said Eagle Island Camp was temporarily closed because the employees were in shock. The guide who accompanied the Simpsons is still being treated for shock in Botswana.

- Die Burger