A working elephant beat its owner to death with its trunk in a forest in Vietnam's remote Central Highlands, a local policeman said today. The one-tusked male elephant was being transported to a new feeding ground by its owner, Y. B'Riu M'lo, 60, when the animal suddenly broke its chain and started beating the man, said Nguyen Viet Nam, a local police officer in Dak Lak province, 350 kilometres north of Ho Chi Minh City. "The owner tried to flee, but the elephant gave chase and dealt several blows to the man with its trunk," dpa quoted the officer as saying. M'lo's family had captured the elephant in the wild 45 years ago and had used it as a working animal, dragging felled trees from the forest, Nam said. After the accident, local villagers recaptured the rogue elephant and chained it to a tree while officials decided its fate, said Nguyen Huu Thinh, deputy chairman of the local People's Committee. The elephant had previously attacked people but this was the first death, Thinh said.
