Belgian tourist trampled to death by elephant in Kenya wildlife reserve

This is reportedly the second incident of this nature in the last month and happened close to the Maasai Mara wildlife reserve.

Photo by d_horkey / CC BY-ND 2.0

On condition of anonymity, a police officer in the area told the media on Wednesday that the Belgian tourist was badly injured by a rogue elephant on Monday and died from his injuries in the Talek Health Centre. It is unclear what exactly happened in the incident, but this comes a month after an Italian man suffered the same fate in the Tsavo National Park in southeast Kenya when attempting to photograph an elephant.

IOL quotes the Kenyan newspaper, The Standard as reporting another incident on Tuesday, involving a Kenyan secondary school student, killed by an elephant while walking to school.

According to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the drought in the country is tending to push wildlife away from their traditional habitats when searching for water and food, which has increasingly brought the elephants into contact with humans.

KWS has urged caution in high-risk areas, as these interactions are likely to increase and their statement read: "From the cases recorded by KWS, it is evident that there has been an increase in reported incidents of conflicts compared to past years; the notable ones being attacks on people, property destruction, livestock predation and crop raiding."