The people inside the vehicle were unharmed in the collision which took place on a highway from Bogota to Medellin in the northwest of Colombia, close to where Escobar's estate had been.

The hippo died immediately after the crash late on Tuesday local time and was taken to be analysed, environmental authorities said.

"This is one of the dangers that the presence of this species represents. Many of them cross the highway where many vehicles pass, it is also a danger to people," said David Echeverri López, a biologist at Cornare, the local environmental authority.

"Hippos are unpredictable, at any moment they can attack a person," he added.

Escobar, who had an estimated net worth of $30bn (£24bn), illegally brought a group of hippos to live in his private zoo on his Hacienda Napoles estate in the 1980s.

The estate became a tourist attraction after Escobar was shot dead by police in 1993.

Residents of nearby Puerto Triunfo have become used to hippos sometimes roaming freely about the town.

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The hippos, which are native to Africa, spread from the estate into nearby rivers and now number around 130.

They have no natural predators in Colombia and have been declared an invasive species that could upset the ecosystem.

Environmental officials said their population could rise to 400 in eight years.

Colombia has proposed transferring at least 70 of the animals to India and Mexico to control their population

Scientists warn that the hippos' faeces change the composition of rivers and could impact the habitat of manatees and capybaras.