A woman watched helplessly as her husband and son were killed by a water buffalo on their family farm in south Wales, an inquest heard on Thursday. Ralph Jump, 57, and his son Peter, 19, were fatally injured by the bull, named Yolo, on the farm, which the family rented for their sustainable business making luxury soap from buffalo milk. Ralph Jump, known as John, who was also the managing director of a heating company firm, had returned home after a work morning out with his wife, Josephine, on 5 May last year. She was preparing food in the kitchen when their daughter Isabelle, 22, ran in screaming: “Yolo is pushing Dad down the field.” The two women ran out to try to distract the animal. Josephine Jump said: “I could see John being rolled by the bull down the field. I screamed at Isabelle to phone an ambulance and I could hear that he was groaning.” She said Peter grabbed an iron bar; she did not want him to go into the field but he tried to help his father. Josephine Jump said: “All of a sudden the bull started going for Peter and got him.” The bull also injured Isabelle. Armed police officers later arrived and shot the animal. Josephine Jump said her husband had died at the scene, near Usk, and Peter had died at the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff. The Jump family had hand-reared the buffalo at their three-acre farm. A police firearms unit arrived at the scene but none of their three weapons was powerful enough to kill the animal, the inquest was told. Firearms officer Robert Gunney told the hearing: “We called for a specialist rifle from a police station 15 minutes away. While waiting I instructed two PCs with lightweight weapons to shoot at the bull, which was standing over Mr Jump staring at his body. We shot the bull in the head knowing it would not have much of an effect.” The bull was later shot dead after a helicopter was used to flush it back into the field. Gunney said: “It was a very unique incident. We have had previous incidents dealing with cattle but nothing with a beast as big as a water buffalo.” The inquest heard Ralph Jump had entered the field alone when he was attacked by Yolo. His wife and daughter took sticks into the field in an attempt to move and direct the bull. A health and safety report found the measures “fell far below the standards of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidelines”. Sara Lumley, an HSE inspector, said Jump should not have entered the field alone, with no handling equipment and without a place for refuge – such as a tractor or a barrier. Giving evidence, she said: “You can never assume that a bull is safe and this bull had shown previous signs of aggression. “As a minimum there should have been two people and some sort of separation or refuge present and handling equipment.” Lumley said she could not comment on whether the Jump family had become complacent over safety because they had reared Yolo from a calf. The inquest before a jury at Newport is continuing.