MADRID (AP) – Authorities in Spain’s northern region of Cantabria are investigating how an elephant killed a worker at a local zoo.
The Cantabrian regional government says 44-year-old Joaquín Gutiérrez died in a hospital on Tuesday, hours after a female elephant hit him with the trunk while cleaning his enclosure in the Cabárceno Natural Park near Santander.
The blow hit Gutiérrez back, and he hit his head against the bars of the pen, officials said.
Gutiérrez had worked with elephants at the zoo for nearly 20 years, local tourism chief Javier López Marcano said in a statement posted on the regional government’s website.
The elephant that hit him had a foot infection and is likely pregnant, Marcano said. She weighs more than 4 tons (4.4 tons).
Zoo and regional officials were not immediately available on Friday.
The police and CANTUR, the regional tourism organization that runs Cabárceno, are investigating the attack.