Two rhinos shot dead near Hectorspruit

Two white rhinos were shot dead on a farm near Hectorspruit at the weekend, Mpumalanga police said on Monday.

Rangers on Mauricedale farm heard shots on Saturday evening and found the carcasses soon after, Captain Leonard Hlathi said.

"One of them was dehorned. They took the small horn, not the big horn. It did not even weigh a kilogram."

He said the second rhino ran into thick bush after being shot and could not be reached by poachers.

No arrests had been made.

Hlathi said police were not investigating a link between the crime and the recent escape of two suspected rhino poachers.

A report in the Beeld newspaper on Sunday linked the crime to the men's escape from police cells in Skukuza on Friday. They were arrested in the Kruger National Park last week for rhino poaching.