ELEPHANT sanctuaries are a common fixture in Thailand’s tourism where it is common for tourists to wash these creatures.
However, this activity had taken a deadly turn for a young Spanish university student after she was gored by an elephant while bathing it, in the Koh Yao Elephant Care center on Friday (Jan 3).
Spanish news portal El Pais reported that the victim, Blanca Ojanguren García, had passed by in front of the elephant while bathing it during the fatal incident and was impaled by one of its tusks, making this the first death caused by an elephant attack in 2025.
According to sources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Spain, quoted by El Pais, the consulate in Bangkok has reached out to García’s family to offer necessary assistance.
22-year-old García hails from city of Valladolid and was a fifth year law and international relations student at the University of Navarra, completing two internships in the Spanish Navy Headquarters and in a technical-legal advisory company in Madrid.
Following her untimely demise, the mayor of Valladolid Jesús Julio Carnero expressed his condolences.
Meanwhile, another Spanish news portal, Clarin reported that experts believe the elephant could have been under stress due to the pressure of dealing with tourists outside its ecosystem and as a result, lashed out at the victim.
For the past 12 years, there have been 240 fatalities mostly attributed to wild animals encroaching on human-inhabited areas due to the loss of their natural habitat.
Just last year, 39 individuals have died because of this reason.
