Thai-ASEAN News Network - Berserk Male Elephant Kills Mahout



Berserk Male Elephant Kills Mahout

UPDATE : 23 February 2012

A male elephant has gone berserk and killed its mahout.

A male elephant has gone berserk and skewered its mahout with its tusks at a rubber plantation field in Trang's Kantang District.

According to Kantang police, the Asia Specific Company hired mahouts to bring four elephants to take down the trees. Two of the elephants, Mongkol and Santi, belonged to 58-year-old Somchok Chuban.

Mongkol was taking down the trees in the morning as usual, with Somchok riding on him, when the animal suddenly went wild and shook the mahout off.

Somchok fell and tried to run away, but Mongkol chased him and attacked him, flinging him with his tusk. Somchok's body hit a rubber tree and he died. Then, Mongkol escaped into the rubber forest.

When police arrived at the scene, Somchok's badly broken body was discovered. Previously, Somchok owned an elephant named Natalie, who killed seven people.

He sold her to the Ayutthaya Elephant Sanctuary, and bought a one-year-old elephant named Mongkol and another named Santi, to do work at the rubber fields instead of Natalie.

Officials from the Kantang Livestock Department and the Wild Elephant Lover Club in Trang Province have gathered to search for Mongkol, as he may attack local residents in the surrounding areas.