A suspected poacher was reportedly trampled to death by a herd of elephants after entering Kruger National Park in South Africa with another man in an alleged attempt to hunt white rhinos.
The disturbing incident unfolded inside one of Africa’s largest and most famous wildlife reserves, where authorities say the two men had illegally entered the park carrying a rifle and an axe.
According to reports cited by The Daily Mail, the pair were allegedly targeting white rhinos, whose horns are highly valuable on illegal markets.
Before they could carry out the suspected hunt, however, the men encountered something they apparently had not anticipated — a herd of elephants resting beneath trees to escape the intense heat.
What happened next turned a suspected poaching operation into a deadly encounter.
According to reports, the elephants charged after the men came across the herd.
The two suspects reportedly fled in different directions, desperately trying to escape.
But one of them was unable to move quickly enough.
The Fatal Encounter
A source from Kruger National Park told The Daily Mail that the man who had allegedly been preparing to shoot the rhino was the slower of the two to react when the elephants charged.“The two ran in different directions, but the one lining up the shot was the slowest to his feet and the elephants went for him first,” the source said.
The man was reportedly quickly overwhelmed by the animals.
“He was quickly overrun and the elephants trampled him into the earth and all that we found was basically a very large bloodstain around the clothing he was in,” the source added.
