A tourist was killed by a ‘panicked’ elephant after bathing the animal at a Thai sanctuary

A “panic” elephant A Spanish tourist was killed after bathing the animal at a sanctuary in southern Thailand, police said on Monday.

A 23-year-old woman was struck by the trunk of a stressed animal at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Center in Phang Nga province, police said.

“A female tourist was killed while bathing an elephant,” local police chief Jaran Bangprasert told AFP.

The shrine declined to provide details of the incident when contacted by AFP.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo He identified the victim as Blanca Ojanguren García. Telegraf.com reports that she and her boyfriend were among 8 tourists at the shrine when the incident happened. This was reported by El Pais He said he is a fifth-year law and international relations student at the University of Navarra and recently completed a professional internship at the Spanish Navy headquarters in Madrid.

a social media postThe mayor of the Spanish city of Valladolid expressed his condolences.

Jesus Julio Carnero wrote: “My deepest condolences to the family of Blanca Ojangure.”

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said that the Spanish Consulate in Bangkok is helping the family of Ojanguren Garcia. The BBC reported on this.

According to the BBC, the Koh Yao Center offers “elephant care” packages that allow tourists to cook and feed the animals, as well as shower and walk with them. These packages cost between 1,900 baht ($55; £44) and 2,900 baht.

According to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, wild elephants have killed 227 people, including tourists, in the past 12 years.

Last month, an elephant killed a 49-year-old woman in a national park in northern Thailand’s Loei province.

last year, two American women were killed In separate elephant attacks in Zambia.

While encounters between villagers and wild elephants are common, attacks on sanctuaries remain rare.

Bathing elephants is a popular activity among visitors in Thailand, where around 2,800 elephants are reportedly kept for tourism purposes across the country. World Animal Protection.

However, animal rights groups claim that bathing elephants can harm them, and some sanctuaries in the country do not allow it.

In 2014, park rangers in Thailand found it the body of an American woman He appears to have been trampled to death by elephants in a reserve on the outskirts of Bangkok.