Escobar was one of the richest and most powerful criminals ever. His racket grew into a multi-million dollar business that dominated the cocaine trade and was blamed for numerous killings

Children had to flee for their lives as the hippos left behind by King of Cocaine Pablo Escobar stormed through the streets.

The drug king kept smuggled hippos in his Colombian estate alongside animals like flamingos, elephants and zebras all smuggled into his private zoo.

In the most recent event, children in Dorada, close to where his estate was, now a theme park, were forced to run as a hippo strolled through the streets.

According to the Mirror, mother Rosalba Casallas said: 'Hearing the screams of the children is something I will never forget.

'I thought someone was being attacked.

'They were playing out in the street in the early evening when the hippo just emerged from the nearby river.

'It was huge, a monster. It would have killed any of the children in an instant.

'They look so innocent as they trudge along but everyone here knows the power they possess.

'They are incredibly aggressive and so so big. No one stands a chance if they were to charge.

'It is only a matter of time before Pablo effectively takes another life.'

Hippopotamus at the Napoles ranch theme park which was once the home of Pablo Escobar

Just outside the village, the hippos roam freely and while some have dubbed them village pets, their danger is well-known

This aerial shot gives a small glimpse of the huge Hacienda Napoles, where Pablo Escobar ran his drugs empire

The drug lord's life is now the centre of a Netflix series about his life, Narcos, which attracted 3.2million viewers worldwide in its first series.

Escobar's son Sebastian Marroquin, blasted the series though, saying it was riddled with inaccuracies, including which football team he supported.

Marroquin said that his father rooted for Deportivo Independiente Medellin when Narcos depicts him as a Atletico Nacional supporter.

Marroquin - who changed his name after Escobar was killed to distance himself from his notorious past - also criticised the series for showing his mother owning and firing a gun when he says was simply not true.

Escobar's huge estate, said to be 20km sq and nine times larger than New York's Central Park, was home to a huge array of animals he smuggled into Colombia in the 1980s

He brought four hippos to the estate from California but it is thought there are between 30 and 35 which have escaped as well as about 40 still living in Haciena Napoles

Escobar's huge estate, said to be 20km sq and nine times larger than New York's Central Park, was home to a huge array of animals he smuggled into Colombia in the 1980s.

He brought four hippos to the estate from California but it is thought there are between 30 and 35 which have escaped as well as about 40 still living in Haciena Napoles.

According to some reports, their reign continues as no one knows how to stop the animals mating and although they are not native to the waters of north Colombia, they are making it their home.

Unlike the other animals, the hippos were harder to relocate, and were left in his large estate until it was taken over by a private company which has turned it into a theme park.

More than 20 years after Pablo Escobar died in a brutal gunfight with police, he leaves behind the legacy of his pet hippos

The animals have left Escobar's private zoo on his Napoles Estate and now, arguably the biggest wild hippo herd outside Africa, they break fences and defecate in the rivers of the quiet village of Dorada, Colombia

Now a theme park, the Parque Tematico Hacienda Napoles is currently home to a Jurassic Park exhibition.

There's also a water park, a guided safari attraction, aquariums and a replica of the caves in one of the country's national parks.

The Escobar museum, his burned private car collection, and the abandoned 'ruins' of his house are still publicly accessible.

THE KING OF COCAINE AND HIS INCREDIBLE WEALTH By the mid-1980s, Pablo Escobar's cartel was bringing in $420m a week, nearly $22 billion a year, which is £322m a week. In 1989, he was the Forbes seventh richest man in the world. Escobar had to spend $2,500 a month, about £1,900, on rubber bands, to keep his notes in order. He apparently once set fire to $2 million in order to keep his daughter warm. His nickname was Robin Hood after he gave out money to the poor and built housing for the homeless. Escobar reportedly wrote off 10 per cent of his profits per year, $250 million per month, because it was being damaged by water, eaten by rats, or otherwise destroyed. He also had to buy a new plane because the one he used to bring money over was too small to hold so much cash. Last year a Colombian farmer was reported to have found $600 million of Escobar's money buried in a field near Medellin after digging up the land to start a palm oil plantation. He owned luxury cars, planes and even two submarines at one point. In 2009, $8 million (£5 million) had been discovered at a hidden complex built in the jungle, where there had been cocaine factories. Christian de Berdouare, a chicken restaurant owner, who bought Escobar's former Miami mansion in 2014 for $10million, believes there could be hidden treasure stashed inside the property. Advertisement

The Hacienda is now a huge theme park with large dinosaur statues and a zoo

The entry to Hacienda Napoles. The estate was seized by authorities in 1990 and he was killed in 1993

Escobar began his criminal career as a teenager selling contraband cigarettes and stealing cars on the streets of Medellin in Colombia.

He moved on to cocaine trafficking in the 1970s and became so successful that he had 15 planes six helicopters to help smuggle the drugs into the U.S.

With a staggering $30billion fortune, Escobar amassed so much cash that he had to spend around $2,500 a month on rubber bands to keep the piles of notes neatly stacked.

During the 1980s, he began amassing a zoo of animals smuggled from abroad, including these hippos from California. Hippos live for 40 to 50 years.

He was shot while trying to escape across nearby roofs with his bodyguard, Alvaro de Jesus Agudelo, who was also shot and killed, with some claiming Escobar actually committed suicide.

A safer hippo: a boy plays on a model hippo in the theme park Hacienda Napoles in Colombia while the real animal terrorises villages nearby

The family theme park features strange statues like this tank in hand as well as plenty of dinosaurs

Escobar had an array of animals including flamingos, seen here in the opening credits of the Netflix drama Narcos