Terrifying moment wounded buffalo turns the tables on a hunter by tossing him in the air and goring his leg – before the beast is finally shot dead by victim’s friends in South Africa

A wounded buffalo turns the tables on a group of hunters in this footage of a near-fatal encounter, crashing into a land manager and throwing him into the air.

The dramatic footage shows the man running for his life as the enraged animal charges towards him during the expedition in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Shocked hunters, who were hidden behind some bushes out of the animal’s line of sight, watch helplessly as the man fails to get out of the way in time.

The man then rolls over the top of the attacking beast, which impales his leg, and is thrown into the air before falling to the ground.

The animal, which became enraged after being hit by an arrow, is then shot dead by the hunting party.

The injured man, whose name was withheld, was assisting the group of hunters when he was attacked by the animal.

It appears the animal’s horns grabbed the man’s leg as blood flowed from his calf.

But otherwise he appears to have escaped largely unscathed, even getting up and brushing himself off after the attack.

However, the buffalo met a gruesome end when the hunter fired a barrage of bullets at him and went back to shoot him again to make sure he was dead.

The incident happened when the buffalo ran away after being hit by an arrow.

The group wanted to prevent the animal from suffering overnight, so they called the land manager to bring a firearm.

Action-packed footage of the incident was captured by videographer Martin Müller, 43, who was hired to film the hunting trip.

The expedition was booked by an American client, also unnamed, who hired Martin and a professional hunter to assist him.

Martin, who owns a manufacturing company in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa, said: ‘The customer had taken a bow shot.

‘It definitely went to the right place: the lungs, but it must have deflected off a bone.

“It still hit the lung, but it was very shallow and the buffalo ran away.

“It was just me, the hunter and the client. We followed the blood for four kilometers before calling the land manager.

“We left a buffer zone of 100 meters from the last blood spot we saw in case the buffalo backed away and waited for the car.”

The land manager arrived with the client’s rifle. He also brought two dogs to help track down the injured buffalo.

He separated from the group, but stayed in the safe zone and tried to follow the animal’s trail with dogs.

Unexpectedly, the buffalo was less than 20 yards away and began chasing the lone man toward the rest of the group.

The hunter could not shoot because the land manager was in his line of fire, but when the animal turned the landowner around, the client fired, hitting the buffalo.

Martin said: ‘It must have turned back and come closer than we thought.

“The boys were twenty meters away and still in the safe zone.”

He continued, “We spoke to the client and told him this was a risky shot, but he said he was on the buffalo the whole time.

‘In retrospect you can disapprove, but if you look from the angle he was standing at, the man wasn’t even in his field of vision.

“It was still a split-second decision and it could have gone either way.”

The land manager was treated in hospital with only minor injuries.

Martin added: ‘The professional hunters always have a first aid kit. We cleaned the wound and sent him to the hospital.

‘He was happy to be alive when he came back. It may have been a combination of realizing how lucky he was and the drugs, but he was happy.’

The incident took place in 2021, but Martin only revealed the footage after it was released by the client this month.