Authorities did not say whether anyone else was injured or what led to the elephants’ aggression.
In a horrific incident, an American tourist from New Mexico was killed by an elephant in Zambia after it attacked her vehicle during a safari on Wednesday. Authorities reported that the elephant pulled Juliana Gle Tourneau, 64, out of the vehicle and trampled her, Subway reported. The incident occurred near the Maramba Cultural Bridge in Livingstone when the group had stopped due to traffic caused by a herd of elephants.
She was taken to a clinic in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. According to a police statement, her injuries included deep wounds to her right shoulder blade and forehead, a fractured left ankle and a slightly depressed chest.
Ms. Tourneau died at around 5:50 p.m. “after being run over by a parked vehicle that had stopped due to traffic caused by elephants around the Maramba Cultural Bridge,” Southern Province Police Commissioner Auxensio Daka told Zambian station. ZNBC on Friday.
Authorities did not say whether anyone else was injured or what led to the elephant’s attack.
This tragic event marks the second fatal elephant attack on an American tourist in Zambia this year. In March, Gail Mattson, a 79-year-old woman from Minnesota, was killed in a similar incident during a safari in Zambia’s Kafue National Park. An elephant attacked and overturned the truck, resulting in his death and injuries to five other people.
In response to these incidents, Zambian authorities have urged tourists to exercise extreme caution when viewing wildlife. Similar concerns have been raised in neighboring countries such as Zimbabwe and Botswana, which have also reported rising elephant populations and deadly attacks in recent years.
According to experts, human deaths are rare in encounters with elephants. ”This is a freak accident. It was probably just some kind of unfortunate combination of circumstances that led to this,” said Nikhil Advani, senior director at the World Wildlife Fund, a nonprofit organization that works on environmental protection and conservation efforts. New York Times.
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