I thought This was it, as no one survives hippo attacks, says Brit who miraculously survived being mauled in Zambia [Video]

A BRIT tourist has told how he miraculously survived being mauled by a hippo.

Roland Cherry, 63, was on a river trip with wife Shirley in Zambia when the 1.5-ton beast flipped over their canoe.

It dragged the marketing director into the water and locked its powerful jaws on him. The hippo then tossed him up like “a rag doll” — but, fortunately, towards the riverbank.

Roland was airlifted to hospital with horrendous injuries, including a ten-inch gash to his abdomen.

Medics told him he was lucky to be alive, as hippos in Africa kill an estimated 500 people a year.

The dad of two, from Warwickshire, needed seven ops in a fortnight.

He recalled: “When the hippo first hit the canoe, there was a massive crash, much like a car crash really. The canoe reared up in the …