The injuries occurred when one elephant, believed to have been spooked by another, bolted during official’s inspection of the Safari elephant camp in Saiyuan, Rawai.
At 11:30am on Saturday, Capt Somkiet Sarasit of the Chalong Police was informed of an incident where an elephant had bolted at the Safari elephant camp Rawai leaving two persons injured.
Upon arrival at the camp Capt Somkiet and his team witnessed one elephant making a run from the camp. The elephant’s mahout Mr Sorapong Chalaethaisong, 37, and a camp staffer Mr Wanchalearm Siripak, 29, were chasing after the animal.
After a time, Mr Wanchalearm managed to get the elephant under control and return it to the camp.
During their investigation, police discovered a damaged pickup truck and minivan in the elephant camp’s car park.
They were also told that two Livestock officials, who had already been taken to Chalong Accident and Emrgency Centre, had suffered various injuries to their bodies, but nothing serious.
One male official had sustained minor injuries to his left arm and a split eyebrow, while his female counterpart had sustained scratches to her legs caused as she attempted to escape from the bolting animal, police were told.
An livestock official told police that as they were taking blood from an elephant named “Lucky”, another elephant walked past which appeared to frighten Lucky causing him to bolt.
The Safari elephant camp told police that they will take full responsibility for the incident.
This is now the second incident of a bolting elephant Livestock officials have witnessed during their campaign.
The first incident occurred last Thursday (Jan 19) when a 15-year-old bull elephant reared and bolted while officers were trying take a blood sample.
A team of 30 officials from the Phuket Provincial Livestock Office were taking blood samples and checking microchip implants from the six elephants at the Phrayai Changthai elephant camp in Soi Yodsanae, in Chalong, when the incident happened. (See story here.)