An elephant in Thailand has ripped his 32-year-old handler in half after it was given a heavy workload in extreme heat, according to police.
Authorities believe the animal, named Pom Pam, had grown frustrated at having to transport rubberwood at a plantation in Phang Nga province in soaring temperatures.
The 20-year-old elephant stabbed their handler Supachai Wongfaed with his tusks before pulling him apart.
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According to reports, local police, the village chief, and rescue workers found Wongfaed - the son of the former mayor of the Khok Charoen subdistrict - ripped in two lying in a pool of blood.
His body was eventually retrieved after livestock officers shot the elephant with a sedative dart, reports Thaiger.
Death in Thailand caused by elephants are rare but on the rise, with at least 20 people being killed in 2020.
The wild animals are usually gentle natured, but can become aggressive when they feel harassed, vulnerable or threatened.
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In June, we reported how a woman was attacked twice by an enraged elephant, once while she was alive and again at her funeral.
According to The Times of India, 68-year-old Maya Murmu was fetching water when she was attacked by a furious elephant who had strayed from the nearby Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary in India's Mayurbhanj district in Odisha on June 9.
When Murmu attempted to flee, one of the elephants charged and trampled her. She was taken to a hospital where she died from her injuries, The Print reports.
In the evening, when Murmu's body had been returned to her family, her loved ones began performing her last rites when
the animal returned, in which it stormed the funeral and took the corpse from the pyre before trampling her dead body.
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"Her family kept the body outside the house for the funeral [and this was when] the animal again came and attacked her," Inspector Lopamudra Nayak of Rasgovindpur police station told The National.
Other members of the elephant's herd answered the call, with the group of them then attacking the village and destroying Murmu's house.
Murmu's last rites were eventually performed a few hours later after family members were sure that the elephants had left.
It is not known if anyone else has been harmed by the rogue elephant.
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Approximately 100 people in India are killed each year by elephants, although the number could be as high as 300, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
The National reports that the Indian state of Odisha has suffered the most deaths, with nearly 600 people killed by elephants between 2014-2021.
Lisa McLoughlin