The elephant, which is in sedation, is pushed into a lorry in Vellalore.
© DCThe elephant, which is in sedation, is pushed into a lorry in Vellalore.
Officials say four people including a teenager and two women were killed when a wild elephant ran amok in southern India early Friday.

District official S. Madhuranthangi said that the elephant strayed into a residential area on the outskirts of the Coimbatore city from a nearby forest and carried out three attacks, sending residents into a state of panic.

Madhuranthangi said: "the elephant first entered a house and attacked a family that was asleep. It lifted a twelve-year girl with its trunk and flung her to the ground, causing her to die on the spot.

"It trampled two women and a 70-year-old man to death in separate attacks later."

She said Five more people injured in the attacks were admitted to hospitals in Coimbatore, where the condition of two wounded was said to be serious.


Hundreds gathered in the area as wildlife and police teams attempted to tranquilise the animal to arrange for its return to the forest.

"The elephant has gone astray and has been wreaking havoc in the region. ... It attacked a government food rations store earlier on Thursday.

"We have warned residents not to venture out from their homes, but there is a lot of commotion around," the official said.

Attacks by wild elephants are common in India and government reports say more than 300 people are killed each year by elephants.

Park deforestation, poaching and encroachment by villagers are boxing in the country's estimated 27,000 to 31,000 wild elephants and causing them to stray from their habitat and reserves.

Also in Nepal, a wild elephant crushed a man to death while he was foraging for mushrooms in a forest in south, local police said on Friday.

The man in his 60s had ventured into the community-run forest near his home in a rural part of Jhapa district when the animal killed him, said Hari Prasad Sharma, a senior police officer.

The man, who was from an indigenous community and earned a living from the forest, was searching for mushrooms when he came under attack, according to Sharma.

"Locals who reached the forest to collect fodder and firewood informed us about the incident,'' he said.

Nepal has made progress in the conservation of endangered wild animals, it has 200 tigers, over 600 rhinos and over 150 wild elephants.

But the rise in numbers has led to dangerous encounters between humans and wild animals, raising concerns about the safety of people living near forests in the country's southern plains.