Spanish tourist gored by ‘panic-stricken’ elephant at Thai sanctuary
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Attacks by elephants have killed 227 people in Thailand in past 12 years. A Spanish tourist was killed by an elephant she was bathing at a sanctuary in southern Thailand, police said on Monday. Blanca Ojanguren García, 22, a student from Valladolid, was visiting the island of Yao Yai with her boyfriend on Friday when she was attacked by the elephant.
The couple were washing one of the animals at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre when she was gored, causing an injury from which she later died. The elephant likely grew stressed or panicked from interacting with visitors outside its ecosystem, experts told local reporters.
Spain’s foreign ministry and its embassy in Bangkok confirmed García’s death. "We can confirm the tragic death in an accident of a Spanish tourist,” the embassy said in a statement. “The Spanish consulate in Bangkok is in contact with the victim’s relatives and offering all the necessary consular assistance, as is normal in these types of circumstances.”.
García studied at the University of Navarra but was living in Taiwan under an Erasmus academic exchange programme. She had travelled to Thailand as a tourist with her partner, an infantry cadet from Oviedo in Spain, according to The Telegraph. She was taking part in an elephant bathing session, a popular tourist activity in Thailand, which allows visitors to interact with wildlife.
