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Teen killed by wild elephant
25/06/2004 12:31 - (SA)
Hanoi - A Hmong teenager was killed by a rampaging wild elephant while attempting to prevent the beast from destroying his family's maize crop in northern Vietnam, forest rangers said on Friday.
Phan A Thenh, 16, died immediately after he was trampled by the elephant in his maize field in Mai Son district, province of Son La on Tuesday evening, said Nguyen Van Luan, deputy director of provincial forestry department.
The male elephant also slightly injured another man in the neighbourhood while searching for food.
"The elephant comes from Laos but makes regular appearances in the district foraging for food. We are trying to locate him and at the same time we are asking local people not to tease him or attack him if they see him" Luan said.
This week, a herd of wild elephants has also caused panic among villagers and destroying farm land in central province of Ha Tinh in search for food.
Around five elephants have recently taken up residence in Huong Son district and destroyed banana, rice and peanut crops of the villagers. However, they have not caused any deaths or injuries.
Each year in Vietnam, several people are killed by elephants desperately seeking food and water as their traditional habitats are encroached upon by logging and unchecked development.
As few as 94 elephants are thought to remain in the wild in the Southeast Asian nation, most of them in tiny herds, down from an estimated 2 000 at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
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