A perfect photo opportunity turned into a gruesome incident when a student was gored by a rhino.
Chantal Beyer, 24, was on a safari tour with her husband and friends when they came across a group of rhinos. She decided to get out of the Jeep with her husband to take a photo.
Gamekeeper, Alex Richter, told Beyer to get closer to two of the animals as she posed for the photo with her husband. He assured them that it was safe to approach them and he offered to take the photo for them, The Beeld newspaper reports.
"There were quite a lot of young people on the vehicle and they probably felt they could trust Richter, who was an adult," Beyer's uncle Thom Peeters told The Beeld.
A few seconds after taking the photo, one of the animals charged at Beyer and pierced her through the back with its horn.
To see the photo that was taken seconds before the incident, click here.
The student from Johannesburg, South Africa was not killed but she suffered from a collapsed lung and several broken ribs.
She is now in stable condition and is recovering at the hospital. The incident took place at the Aloe Ridge Hotel and Nature Reserve which is 30 miles from Johannesburg.
Mr. Richter was unavailable to comment on the incident.
Rhinos are an endangered animal and can weigh up to 5,000 pounds. They are threatened by poachers as there is a high demand for rhino horn in Vietnam. More than 650 rhinos were killed in 2012 for their horns.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
