A herd of hippopotamuses is on the run in Colombia. The hippos were once owned by the late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. He used his money to stock a private zoo with exotic animals, including giraffes, zebras, elephants and four hippos. Since 1980s, hippos have been living at Escobar's former ranch, Hacienda Napoles. It is about 200 miles northwest of Bogota.

Colombian authorities have to soon capture the hippos as they are dangerous for human beings. Between 10 and 200 human beings are killed by hippos every year.

The Colombian government confiscated the eight-square-mile ranch and sent the animals to zoos around the country after demise of Escobar in 1993. However, hippos were not able to end up in any of the zoos around the country because of being hefty herbivores and too expensive to feed and difficult to control. This led the hippos to find residence in the lake at the ranch where they multiplied successfully.

It was 2005 when people in the countryside around Hacienda Napoles saw hippos for the first time in their area. They spa creature in a river that they had never seen before, Carlos Valderrama from the charity Webconserva told the BBC.

It was a group of 12 hippos and there was no denying the possibility that they escaped and they can further multiply if they would continue roaming the ranch.

David Echeverri, head of fauna at government wildlife group CORNARE, said hippos weigh up to four tons and they are not good natured. However, authorities are feeling shackled because Colombian zoos do not want them and they can't be sent back to Africa over fears of transmitting diseases there.

Valderrama said the most feasible option is to shoot them. He added that nobody likes doing that but there does not seem to be any other option to deal with them.