Man killed by elephant he tried to scare away - A rubber tapper who set off firecrackers to scare a herd of wild elephants in...

Man killed by elephant he tried to scare away

GUA MUSANG: A rubber tapper who set off firecrackers to scare a herd of wild elephants in Kampung Serian, Batu 11, near here, was killed when one of the elephants attacked him.

Gua Musang OCPD Supt Saiful Bahri Abdullah told Bernama the female elephant wrapped its trunk around Lee Che Hassan, 46, and smashed him against a tree on Friday.

Lee’s friend, who saw the incident, rushed back to inform the villagers about the attack.

“Lee died on the spot,” he said, adding that the victim’s elder brother Che Mohd Zi, 52, tried to take Lee’s body from the scene but was unable to do so because the elephant was standing guard nearby and would charge at anyone who came near.

Several Wildlife Department officers came to the area and retrieved Lee’s body four hours later after chasing the elephants back into the jungle.

This is the third elephant attack in Kelantan in the past five months.

On Jan 23, a farm worker Bernardus Ngongo Naru, 24, fractured his ribs when an elephant trampled on him.

On Dec 6, Muhamad Adnan Iberahim, 26, was killed when he was trampled on by a herd of wild elephants near Pos Pasik, Gua Musang.