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The US Sun
Horror moment elephants go on rampage & stampede injuring 13 people at religious festival in Sri Lanka
By Annabel Bate,
2 hours ago
THIS is the terrifying moment a Hindu religious festival turns into chaos after an elephant went berserk and made the other animals stampede.
Footage shows one elephant in a costume initially breaking away from the procession in panic – sparking the carnage that left 13 people injured.
The animal towers over the crowds at the religious festival Twitter/@SriLankaTweet People back away as the elephant stomps aimlessly around Twitter/@SriLankaTweet The crowds begin to disseminate out of fear of being trampled Twitter/@SriLankaTweet
As the massive creature faces the opposite direction, its keeper is seen pulling its tail in an unsuccessful attempt to get it to stop.
The elephant picks up pace while the keeper desperately holds onto its tail, screaming for the crowds to escape.
Meanwhile the other elephants begin to follow suit and wreak havoc at the religious event.
People are seen desperately running away from the wild animals, not being able to tell what their next move was.
The first elephant is eventually surrounded by a group of people who get it under control.
Some 13 people were injured and taken to hospital in Kataragama, which is around 175miles south of the capital Colombo, a police spokesman said.
All of the victims have since been discharged.
In the footage, all of elephants are dressed in different coloured robes, towering over the crowds that are below.
They’re considered a sacred animal within the Hindu religion, representing loyalty, power, wisdom and fertility, USDA reports .
Animal rights groups have previously criticised the widespread use of the creatures at temple ceremonies in Sri Lanka.
Elephants are known to be overall peaceful animals – but there have been some occasions were the creatures have become murderous.
In a similar tale, rampaging elephants are leaving a trail of terror in Thailand amid a worrying surge in fatal attacks in the country.
The beasts have been running riot on roads, storming into tourist areas and even breaking into homes as they plague the elephant attack capital of the world – with tourists to blame, experts told The Sun.
A report in February claimed at least 150 people in Thailand were killed due to wild elephant related attacks since 2018.
More than 133 were also injured, according to Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.
Many of these were tourists in the southern part of the country.
The number of horror incidents in the south have only increased overtime – and coincide with Thailand seeing a huge increase in wild elephant issues.
In 2006, an elephant named Osama bin Laden slaughtered 27 people in northeast India before he was finally shot dead.
He was accused of savagely killing 14 villagers in just one month.
The 10ft beast terrorised villagers for two years, destroying hundreds of homes and crushing dozens of people to death – prompting locals to name him after the evil al-Qaeda leader.
Charles Mutisya, 73, was brutally killed while tending to his farm at 7am one morning in December.
The elderly man was found with his “intestines hanging outside the stomach”.
TEMPLE OF DOOM
A temple worker was stomped to death by a wild elephant while taking a stroll In Hua Hin, Thailand.
Prasit Kanchanasilanon, 58, was found lying face-down in a pool of blood in front of the monks’ living quarters, according to the Bangkok Post .
He had suffered a fractured skull and a number of other horrific injuries.
CRUSHING BLOW
A furious elephant crushed a man to death after a crowd of workers teased a herd passing through a tea plantation with loud noises.
The swarm of workers started taunting and chasing the elephants in a bid to scare them off by shouting and honking car horns.
After darting towards the workers, the huge Indian elephant made a beeline for a man who had stumbled by the roadside while trying to escape before trampling him to death.
PAIR OF WILD BEASTS
At least one man was killed in southern India when two wild elephants went on a three-hour rampage leaving behind a trail of carnage.
A 55-year-old security guard was trampled to death after he came out of his house to see what was going on amid the widespread panic.
Horrific footage showed the bloodied body of the man after being repeatedly gored, butted and trampled in a doorway.
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