Elephant tramples circus worker
2005-02-01 13:15
Fort Wayne - An elephant being loaded onto a truck trampled a circus animal trainer to death at Memorial Coliseum, police said.
Three handlers were loading the elephant on Monday as crews packed up from this weekend's Shrine Circus, Fort Wayne television station WISE reported. Two of the workers left the trailer and one man stayed behind to lock the trailer door.
Police believe the elephant crushed the man, who was found later by a Coliseum worker. He died from blunt force trauma to the chest at a hospital a few hours after being found, police said.
Police said they did not know how many times the elephant stepped on the man, whose name was not released.
Elephants are the largest of all land animals, and depending on the sex and species they could reach 4m in height and weigh up to 6.5 tons, according to the Humane Society of the United States' website.
Captive elephants from 1990 to 2003 killed 65 people and injured 130, according to Circuses.com.
- AP