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Today's Paper | May 18, 2024

Published 05 Mar, 2009 12:00am

Elephant stampede, tiger attack claim two lives

JAKARTA An elephant stampede and a tiger attack on Indonesia's Sumatra island killed a villager and an illegal logger on Wednesday morning, officials said.

Capt. Dedi Nata said an 83-year-old man was trampled to death when 20 wild elephants went on a rampage in his village in Riau province, sending scores of residents fleeing in panic into the jungle.

In a separate attack in neighbouring Jambi province, a tiger mauled an illegal logger to death and dragged away his body, said Nurhasman, a conservationist. His identity was still unknown.

At least a dozen people have been killed in Indonesia since November by tigers and elephants.

The surge in violent confrontations between man and beast is blamed on rapidly shrinking forest habitat in the vast tropical archipelago where several species of rare mammals are facing extinction.—AP

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