A young American tourist is reported to have been trampled to death by elephants in a national park near Bangkok. Rangers are said to have discovered the woman's crushed body at the Kaeng Krachan National Park.
The American, whose name has yet to be disclosed, went missing on January 13 and had been the subject of a search by as many as 70 people.
American Embassy officials declined to reveal details but police said the woman may have been trying to photograph the creatures before she was killed. The woman was in her 20s.
Colonel Woradet Suanklaai told reporters: ''Her arms, her wrists and other parts of the body were broken, so we assumed she was trampled by elephants because no humans could have caused such damage to the body.''
The woman was travelling alone after she left a camping ground in the park, the largest in the country.
Deaths from elephants are rare in Thailand, especially if the cause is wild elephants. One death has been recorded in recent years in Phang Nga, north of Phuket, when a male trekking elephant went on a rampage.
Male elephants go into ''musth'' each month and can be dangerous, which is why the vast majority of trekking elephants on Phuket are female.
The American, whose name has yet to be disclosed, went missing on January 13 and had been the subject of a search by as many as 70 people.
American Embassy officials declined to reveal details but police said the woman may have been trying to photograph the creatures before she was killed. The woman was in her 20s.
Colonel Woradet Suanklaai told reporters: ''Her arms, her wrists and other parts of the body were broken, so we assumed she was trampled by elephants because no humans could have caused such damage to the body.''
The woman was travelling alone after she left a camping ground in the park, the largest in the country.
Deaths from elephants are rare in Thailand, especially if the cause is wild elephants. One death has been recorded in recent years in Phang Nga, north of Phuket, when a male trekking elephant went on a rampage.
Male elephants go into ''musth'' each month and can be dangerous, which is why the vast majority of trekking elephants on Phuket are female.
There was a death in Kanchanaburi province, c. 60kms south of Si Sawat in 2013 when a husband and wife collecting mushrooms in the jungle were attacked and the wife trampled to death.
Posted by Michael on January 23, 2014 21:37