An unlucky lion stranded on a rock by a river was attacked by a hippo and forced to swim back to shore.

Dave Pusey was leading a game driver along the Crocodile River in Kruger National Park, South Africa, on March 14 when he heard hippos angrily roaring in the water.

Exciting footage captured the moment an unfortunate male lion was forced to strike at one of the hippos as it bared its gigantic jaws aggressively.

Eventually the lion had to jump into the river – which contained about 30 hippos – and swim to the shore to escape the eye-popping attack.

Dave said: “I couldn't believe my eyes, the Crocodile river was very high still after all the summer rain and I didn't expect to see a lion that wanted to cross during the high water conditions and get stuck in the middle.

“It is possible that the two dominant male lions of the area could have chased him and that is why he wanted to cross during these high water conditions.

“During my 16 years of guiding I have always wanted to see serious hippo and lion interaction but this scenario where the lion was stranded is not at all what I expected.

“The young but big male lion was clearly very vulnerable and out of his comfort zone, the hippos sensed this and just wanted him out of there.

“He is very lucky that one of the hippos didn't get hold of him with those huge canines.

“We were there for about 10 minutes until he was attacked by one of the hippos and jumped off the rock and swam for his life to the southern bank.

“We don't think he had been on the rock for very long as his fur was still a bit wet.

“He was probably not up there for much more than a half hour as the hippos kept trying to get at him and didn't want to let him lie down in their territory.”