From house breaking in Johannesburg to hippos on the loose in Tbilisi to rioters attacking a policewoman in Burundi, Reuters photographers tell the story behind some of the most iconic pictures of the year. Here: Protesters drag a female police officer accused of shooting a protester in the Buterere neighbourhood of Bujumbura, Burundi, May 12, 2015. Goran Tomasevic: Protesters started throwing stones at a group of police, who then started to run away. The policewoman in the photo, Medikintos Inabeza, 33, got left behind and then some protesters started to push her, saying that she had shot a female protestor in the stomach with an AK47 rifle. I didn't see anything of that. There were 5 or 10 protesters pushing the policewoman at first, then others came and joined in. Up to 20 or 30 protesters were surrounding her at one point. The protesters kicked and beat her very badly; I also saw a couple of knives. I thought they were going to kill her... (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

People watch as lava flows from an eruption of a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland late on Monday, March 29, 2021. Iceland's latest volcano eruption is still attracting crowds of people hoping to get close to the gentle lava flows. The eruption in Geldingadalur, near Iceland's capital Reykjavik, is not seen as a threat to nearby towns and the slow flows mean people can get close to action without too much harm. (Photo by Marco Di Marco/AP Photo)

A calico sits in its enclosure and suns itself in Hessen, Germany on May 28, 2021. The Opel Zoo presents a walk-in Madagascar aviary for caltas and varis. The primate species is native to Madagascar and is threatened with extinction. (Photo by Andreas Arnold/dpa)

People stand next to a ship, containing tonnes of hazardous mercury-mixed oil, as it was allowed to anchor at Gadani ship-breaking yard in Gadani, Pakistan, 28 May 2021. Authorities have launched an investigation into the anchoring of a ship at the Gadani shipbreaking yard despite Interpol's warning that the ship contains dangerous chemicals. (Photo by Rehan Khan/EPA/EFE)

Ukraine's Viktoriia Onopriienko competes in the individual all-around qualification round during the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships at the West Japan General Exhibition Center in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka prefecture on October 27, 2021. (Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP Photo)

A customer plays “Red Light, Green Light” game from the Netflix show “Squid Game” at Strawberry Cafe in Jakarta, Indonesia, October 15, 2021. (Photo by Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters)

In this photograph taken on August 20, 2022 a woman dances with a child alongside the Garonne river in Toulouse, southern France. (Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP Photo)

A fuzzy caterpillar on a basil plant in west Bengal, India on December 25, 2023. The caterpillar’s defence system is its hair, which has microscopic barbs that break off easily in the skin of would-be predators. (Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)