While traveling with her companion, the Spanish student was killed on Friday by a blow from the trunk of a pachyderm in a center on the island of Yao Yai.
A tourist outing that goes wrong. Blanca Ojanguren Garcia, a 22-year-old Spanish woman, was fatally attacked by an elephant on Friday at a health center on Koh Yao on Yao Yai island in southwest Thailand. According to a testimony from an employee relayed by the Spanish press agency EFE the final year student of law and international relations at the University of Navarra, in Spain, had gone with her companion to the pool.
While the young woman was washing the elephant in front of around twenty people, she saw the pachyderm knock her over with a blow of its trunk, killing her instantly. According to Sky News the animal would have been the victim of a «stress» important when the student approached him. Among the first hypotheses put forward to explain this act, regular and daily activities with tourists are highlighted.
Animals in Thailand are the subject of many tourist attractions, such as elephant baths. Practices regularly denounced by associations for the protection and preservation of wild animals. According to Thailand's National Parks Department, more than 4,000 elephants are used in the country's sanctuaries, national parks and nature reserves, such as Koh Yao. Of the 240 deaths linked to elephant attacks recorded by the department, 39 would have lost their lives in 2024.
