An elephant trampled its handler to death and ran off with two Russian tourists -- a mother and her 9-year-old daughter who were riding it during a trek in southern Thailand, police said on Monday.
Rescue teams tracked down the elephant about 3 km away and tranquilized it to rescue the tourists clinging to its back, police Lt. Col. Narong Laksanawimol said.
“It took almost three hours for the elephant to calm down completely. We had to tie it to a tree,” Narong said by telephone.