Woman describes deadly elephant attack

24 November 2011 - 11:03 By Sapa
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African elephant. File photo.
African elephant. File photo.
Image: Reuben Goldberg

An estate agent from Knysna has described how her husband was killed by an elephant which she had been photographing only minutes earlier.

Ling Dobson told the Cape Times that her husband Mike, 67, had been killed at the weekend, in a "once-in-a-lifetime freak accident" on a private game farm belonging to close friends on the Shashe River in the Thuli block region in Northern Botswana.

She said they had been walking with their hosts away from a watering hole, where she had taken "the most awesome photographs of the elephant cow", when they heard the animal trumpeting.

"Mike was walking in front of me. The elephant took fright. No one knows what spooked her. I took a detour and Mike took a detour.

"Moments later I asked where Mike was, but by then Mike was no more."

Dobson said she and her friends found him nearby.

Botswana police confirmed that he had been gored by an elephant tusk "with great force".

Dobson said they loaded the severely injured man into a private vehicle and rushed him to the South African border, about 60km away. There they phoned ahead, to be met by an ambulance in Limpopo.

Paramedics confirmed that her husband had not survived.

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