Elephant hurls its keeper from its back and tramples him to death at a temple in India

An elephant trampled its own keeper to death in a tragic accident at a temple in India.

The keeper, named only as Gajendran, 48, was killed while riding the beast at the Samayapuram Mariamman temple in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu.

Horrifying footage from the scene showed Gajendran's body being booted around by the enraged animal as blood poured onto the floor of the main temple building.

The elephant is kept on the site for the purpose of blessing pilgrims. But she suddenly decided to attack her 48-year-old carer on Tuesday.

He had reportedly been sitting on her back when she plucked him free using her trunk, and then trampled him to death.

The elephant was only brought under control after 40 minutes by a team of four daring carers from the temple.

According to local media, there were around 300 people in the building at the time - all of whom managed to get clear of the rampaging animal.

Temple officials said the 10 year-old female elephant named Masini had been living at the temple for the past four years without issue.

A police spokesperson said they were not sure what had caused the elephant to become angry.

The forestry Ministry official added: 'A team of vets have arrived to provide treatment to the elephant. The dead man's body has been retrieved and has been sent for post-mortem.

'He had worked as a keeper for four years until this happened.'

The temple has been closed while police carry out an investigation into the incident and the elephant moved to a new location for at least three months.


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