An elephant killed a teenage girl in Koh Kong province on Sunday while she was checking fishing nets with her family, according to a commune official.
Chiem Sokhim, 14, had been walking with her mother and younger cousin to check the nets about a kilometer from their home in Thma Baing district’s Chiphat commune, said Uy Ay, the chief of the commune council.
As they were pulling up the nets at about 9 a.m., an elephant approached, sending the three running, but only two escaped.
“She was stepped on by the big, dark elephant while her mother yelled ‘run, run, run’ without turning to see [her daughter],” Mr. Ay said of Chiem Sokhim. “The elephant stepped on her and broke the bones in her right leg and her right armpit, and her forehead was injured.”
Mr. Ay said the mother ran all the way to her home and alerted a neighbor before returning to the forest, where she found the girl still breathing. Chiem Sokhim died, however, at about noon, en route to the commune health center.
Mr. Ay said the elephant was well known to locals and still living in the area.
“The elephant is about 3 meters high, four meters long, 0.8 meters wide, and it has a big head.”
