As of: April 9, 2024, 7:36 a.m
By: Fabian Hartmann
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Elephants in the wild are considered unpredictable. This is now also shown by a case from Zambia in which a woman died as a result of an elephant attack on a safari.
Lusaka – An unusual attack with tragic consequences recently occurred in a national park in Zambia in southern Africa. An elephant attacked a jeep during a safari. A 79-year-old US citizen died in the attack.
“Aggressive bull elephant” breaks away from herd and chases tourist jeep
The incident occurred over the Easter weekend in the country's largest national park, Kafue National Park, about 350 kilometers west of the Zambian capital Lusaka. While a group of tourists was traveling there in a jeep, an "aggressive bull elephant" is said to have suddenly left its herd and pursued the vehicle completely unexpectedly, reported the US news channel
ABC News
.
African elephant (Loxodonta africana) © IMAGO/xphototripx
The elephant then attacked the vehicle, which, in addition to the driver, was carrying six tourists, explained the company responsible for organizing the safari, “Wilderness”.
79-year-old US tourist dies in elephant attack
A 79-year-old American woman was seriously injured in the "unexpected" incident and was taken by helicopter to a hospital in South Africa. She later died from her injuries there, Wilderness reported. The Zambian safari company also said four other people were slightly injured as a result of the elephant attack.
“Our guides are all very well trained and experienced, but unfortunately in this case the terrain and vegetation were such that the guide's path was blocked and he could not get the vehicle out of the danger zone quickly enough,” says Keith Vincent, Head of Kafue National Park in a statement.
Vincent added that local police, the Zambian National Parks and Wildlife Authority and other authorities are currently involved in the investigation.
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Fatal attacks by elephants occur again and again
Shortly after the incident, a video circulated on social media, such as the short message service X (formerly Twitter), showing the angry bull elephant chasing the tourist jeep. A little later, the brutal noise can be heard when the elephant topples the vehicle with its tusks.
Elephants are considered comparatively peaceful creatures when unprovoked. However, experts recommend that you don't get too close to them. Because if they feel threatened, things could become dangerous. Elephant attacks on humans occur but are considered rare. Every year, around 500 elephant attacks on people worldwide end fatally, with Discovery Wildlife estimating that more than half of them occur in India.
But there were also some cases on the African continent in which attacks by elephants ended fatally for tourists: As the travel portal
Reisereporter.de
reported, an elephant killed a tourist from Austria on a safari in Zambia's neighboring country Namibia in 2019. And in 2022, five people died as a result of an elephant attack in Mozambique, southeast Africa, as the
German Press Agency
(dpa)
reported at the time.
(fh)