At least 90 buffaloes were trampled to death Tuesday as they fled from lions in Namibia’s far east, wildlife officials said.

The stampede happened around 5:00 am (0300 GMT) along the Chobe River, in the Zambezi conservation area, a unique wildlife-rich zone of waterfalls, forests and marshes.

The lions had chased the buffaloes from neighbouring Botswana, spokesperson for the tourism ministry Ndeshipanda Hamunyela told AFP.

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“It is an unfortunate incident. The animals fell from a deep cliff down into the river and some tumbled over each other,” she said.

Footage posted on social media by state broadcaster Namibia Broadcasting Corporation showed about a dozen men with axes chopping up the buffalo carcasses and loading the meat onto pickup trucks.

Namibia, a semi-desert southern African country, earns around seven percent of its gross domestic product from tourism.

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In 2018, more than 400 buffaloes, also believed to have been chased by lions, drowned in a river in northern Botswana.

Buffalo river drownings are not uncommon in the region, but the numbers are usually small.