At least 90 buffaloes were trampled to death Tuesday as they fled from lions in Namibia's far east, wildlife officials said.

The stampede happened around 5:00 am (0300 GMT) along the Chobe River, in the Zambezi conservation area, a unique wildlife-rich zone of waterfalls, forests and marshes.

The lions had chased the buffaloes from neighbouring Botswana, spokesperson for the tourism ministry Ndeshipanda Hamunyela told AFP.

"It is an unfortunate incident. The animals fell from a deep cliff down into the river and some tumbled over each other," she said.

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Footage posted on social media by state broadcaster Namibia Broadcasting Corporation showed about a dozen men with axes chopping up the buffalo carcasses and loading the meat onto pickup trucks.

Namibia, a semi-desert southern African country, earns around seven percent of its gross domestic product from tourism.

In 2018, more than 400 buffaloes, also believed to have been chased by lions, drowned in a river in northern Botswana.

Buffalo river drownings are not uncommon in the region, but the numbers are usually small.