A tourist has been killed in front of her boyfriend and other visitors while bathing an elephant in Thailand.
Spanish woman, Blanca Ojanguren Garcia, 22, and her boyfriend were giving a bath to an elephant at Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre on Friday, January 3, when the animal seemed to ‘panic’ and pierced her with its tusk, police said in a statement.
Bathing elephants at animal sanctuaries is a popular activity for tourists in Thailand, which is home to both wild and domesticated populations.
University student Garcia was visiting Thailand with her boyfriend, and the couple had been on a day trip to the centre on Koh Yao Yai island while staying in Thailand’s popular resort island of Phuket, Koh Yao district police chief Charan Bangprasert said.
The owner of the centre informed police of the incident on Friday and an investigation is underway, the police chief said.
Elephants, Thailand’s national animal, have seen their wild population decline in recent decades due to threats from tourism, logging, poaching and human encroachment on elephant habitats.
International non-profit World Animal Protection has urged against the exploitation of elephants by the tourism industry and called for an end to captive breeding, voicing alarm for the conditions that many are kept in, including in isolation.
