Elephant tramples handler to death, flees with 2 Russian tourists

An elephant trampled its handler to death and ran off with two Russian tourists who were riding on it during a trek in southern Thailand. Rescue teams tracked down the male bull elephant about 1.8 miles away and tranquilized it to rescue the tourists clinging to its back. Local police said it took almost three hours for the elephant to be calm enough for handlers to recapture it. Police said the elephant had never attacked anyone since it began working for a tourist company two years ago, adding that the animal was in 'musth', a state of aggressive sexual excitement.