Manhunt underway after two tourists stabbed to death and dumped in croc-infested safari river

Police are searching for the killer of retired couple Ernst and Dina Marais, whose bodies were found in South Africa's Kruger National Park two days after they'd last been seen alive.

Ernst, 71, and Dina, 73, had been found with their hands bound and stab wounds on their bodies, The Sun reports, and the river they'd been dropped in was known to be home to crocodiles.

They report that a Kruger National Park source told them: "It was hoped that they had gone off road and broken down after heavy local floods somewhere, but then we got a call to say two bodies had been found.

“Both had been stabbed in what was clearly a very brutal attack and had been thrown into the river, no doubt for the crocs, and their 4 x 4 had been stolen, so this is a very major incident for us."

The paper indicated that investigators are looking into the possibility the elderly couple encountered poachers in the safari park and were killed to avoid raising the alarm.

Dina and Ernst Marais were found dead in a river two days after they were last seen alive (Facebook)

Whoever murdered the couple is believed to have also stolen their vehicle and dumped their bodies in the river to try and get the crocodiles to dispose of them.

Police are looking into the possibility that the suspects crossed the border from South Africa into Mozambique as they fled the national park.

Ernst and Dina had disappeared on Wednesday (20 May) after they didn't return to their accommodation and were reported missing the following morning after staff at their resort found their room had not been used that night.

During the search investigators visited their home to rule out the possibility that they'd simply decided to cut their holiday short and go back.

Sadly on the Friday their bodies were spotted by a group of tourists who had been watching a herd of elephants crossing a place called Crook's Corner.

Their bodies were found in a crocodile infested river (Delwasse JP/Alpaca/Andia/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

South African National Parks confirmed in a statement that the couple's family have been informed of what's happened, saying they'd 'learned with shock and sadness of the discovery of bodies of two tourists'.

They said it had been a 'gruesome discovery' and that they'd 'never had an incident like this in the history of the Kruger'.

A police investigation into their deaths is ongoing, though investigators expect the killers have already left the national park, and South African National Parks has also deployed extra risk mitigation measures in the north-eastern part of the Kruger where the killings are thought to have occurred.

They said a crime like this was 'unprecedented' and nothing like it had happened before in the past century.