DADU, Aug 15: Residents of Qubbo Qalandar village, 30 kilometre from Johi taluka, were sent running for their lives on Wednesday after reports that a stray crocodile had killed and eaten up their dogs.

Aas Babbur, a villager, said that he saw a crocodile attacking their dog and swallowing it alive and rushed to warn the villagers. The news panicked the villagers and all the more than 30 families evacuated to nearby flood protective bund, he said.

Ghulam Nabi, president of Sujag Sansaar, an NGO, confirmed the villager’s account saying he, too, had seen the reptile but added that the crocodiles were two in number and considerably small in size.

He said that they might have strayed into the flooded village from Hamal Lake in Baluchistan.

The Johi mukhtiarkar denied reports of crocodiles sighting and said he could not confirm the news at this hour when it was already too dark to ascertain it.