Two elephants went on a terrifying three hour rampage in southern India killing one person and causing widespread mayhem.
The elephants emerged from the forest in the early morning in the Indian state of Karnataka before running amok through the city of Mysore.
A 55 year old security guard was gored and trampled to death after leaving his house to see what was happening.
An eyewitness said: ‘The two elephants entered our city and started stomping over everything that came in their way.”
“One of them even entered a market place and crushed a man to death within minutes.”
Karnataka state higher education minister S.A. Ramdas told the AFP that one of the elephants ran riot in a women’s college compound while the other caused chaos on the streets.
Schools and colleges were shut down while police, forest rangers and staff from Mysore zoo were drafted in to catch the animals.
Residents were warned to stay indoors and told not to throw stones in case they provoked the elephants further.
After a three-hour hunt, the two elephants were eventually subdued with
tranquillises and captured before later being released into the
wild.
Elephant attacks on humans have been increasing each year as the animals’r natural habitats becomes depleted forcing them to search further afield for food.
Experts believe that modern day pachyderms suffer from “species specific stress” originating from trauma.
