JOHANNESBURG, July 15, 2008 (AFP) - South African animal rights activists reacted with outrage on Tuesday after a wandering hippopotamus suspected of mauling a 60-year-old man to death was shot dead on the outskirts of Durban.

A spokesman for the Durban municipality said the hippo, which generated huge public interest after being spotted frolicking in the ocean waves near the resort town of Ballito back in May, had been 'put down' on Monday night.

'As a responsible municipality, we cannot take a gamble with the lives and safety of our citizens and ... we took a final decision to put the animal down before any further incidents could occur,' Christo Swart said in a statement cited by the SAPA news agency.

The animal -- dubbed Nkululeko (Zulu for freedom) by the press -- was suspected of having killed 60-year-old Ben Dlamini at the weekend. His body was found with one wound to the head and facial injuries near a township on the outskirts of Durban, the country's second largest city.

But Animal Rights Africa spokesman Steve Smit laid the blame for both the deaths of Dlamini and the hippo at the feet of Kwa-Zulu Natal provincial wildlife authorities.

'They have known about this for months and chose not to do anything about it simply because hippos are of no conservation value for them,' he told AFP.

KZN Wildlife spokesman Jeff Gaisford said the decision would have been taken in the public interest.

'The thing that concerned us most was that someone would die. We don't know definitely that he (Dlamini) was killed by the hippo, but we can't sit and wait,' Gaisford told AFP.

'The dilemma you sit with is that hippos are known to be hugely aggressive. They are very, very short tempered and extremely powerful. Of all the game animals hippos are repsonsible for the most human deaths.'

He said it was likely the hippo originated from the northern part of the province.

'Every now and again a hippo gets a bee in its bonnet and wanders away ... We are not sure why, generally you could look at a young bull being kicked out of a herd.'