Amerikaanse toeriste en 1 jaar jonge dochtertje dood getrapt door olifant in Mount Kenya wildpark (Kenya)

U.S. Tourist, Daughter, Crushed by Elephant

in Kenya

06-01-2010 By Eric Ombok, Bloomberg, USA


Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- An American tourist and her one-year- old daughter were trampled to death by an elephant in Kenya while they were walking near a lodge in a wildlife reserve in the center of the East African country, a park official said.

The woman and her baby were being accompanied by a tour guide, her husband and other tourists when the elephant attacked them about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) from Castle Lodge in Mount Kenya National Park, Senior Warden Godfrey Wakaba said by phone today. The incident took place on Jan. 4, he said.

“The tourists left the lodge for a casual walk when the incident happened,” Wakaba said.

The victims’ bodies have been flown to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, he said, without providing further information. There was a similar accident in the area last year, Wakaba said.

Mount Kenya National Park, which surrounds Mount Kenya, Africa’s second-highest mountain, was declared a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1997. The reserve contains animals including buffalo, black rhino, leopard and giant forest hogs.

The latest population census put the elephant population around Mount Kenya at 4,000, Wakaba said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Ombok in Nairobi at eombok@bloomberg.net.

(Bron: http://www.bloomberg.com/)