A 52-year-old fisherman has died after being attacked by a crocodile while fleeing a herd of elephants in eastern Zambia, police say. 

Dean Nyirenda was returning from a fishing trip with two friends on Wednesday when they bumped into the elephants. They ran away, with Nyirenda diving into a stream near the Luangwa River.

"That is when he was attacked by a crocodile by biting his right thigh," local police chief Robertson Mweemba told journalists. 

The southern African country has a thriving elephant population and clashes between humans and wildlife have claimed many lives in recent years.

Police said Nyirenda had managed to escape the crocodile by hitting it with a stick which he had in his hands.

"He dragged himself from the stream," said Mweemba

His two fellow fishermen, who had been watching from a distance, went to help him and carried him from the riverbank while he was bleeding heavily, state-run ZNBC news website reported. 

"They tried to stop the bleeding but unfortunately he died," added the police chief. 

Wildlife officers later visited the scene and found deep bite marks on the fisherman's right thigh, which had led to the fatal bleeding.

The BBC has reached out to the authorities for comment.

The Luangwa River, which flows through Zambia's South Luangwa National Park, is home to one of the highest concentrations of Nile crocodiles in Africa, according to conservationists. 

Of the 26 wildlife-related deaths recorded in 2023, 15 were caused by crocodile attacks, most of them along the Luangwa River, according to Resource Africa, a community-led conservation NGO.

Zambian authorities have previously called on locals and tourists to exercise extreme caution when travelling through the country's wildlife hotspots.

Wildlife authorities say they have been considering measures to reduce the human-animal conflicts, including building protective fences near wildlife areas.