Dubai: Experts at a zoo in the Moroccan capital of Rabat are trying to understand why an elephant tossed a stone in the direction of visitors, killing a seven-year-old girl.
A zoo veterinarian said on Friday that the behaviour of the female elephant was “abnormal” and needs to be understood.
The girl was visiting the Zoological Garden of Morocco with her family on Tuesday, admiring the three elephants when one of them searched for a stone, picked it up and tossed it more than 10 metres over a huge ditch and a wooden barrier towards the visitors. The girl was struck in the head.
Veterinarian Abdul Rahim Salhi said by telephone that zoo personnel were remained in shock, and the elephant exhibit has been temporarily closed to the public. The unidentified girl was taken to a hospital but died a few hours later, the Washington Post cited the zoo as saying.
Cell phone video taken moments after the incident shows the rock that allegedly hit the girl and a group of bystanders huddled near her, tending to her injuries while waiting for an ambulance.
An official statement released by Rabat Zoo denied responsibility for the young girl’s death, according to Morocco World News, and said that the elephant enclosure met all international standards.
The Post reported that the zoo offered its condolences to the family of the deceased girl and said that “this kind of incident is rare, unpredictable and strange.” The statement, written in French, added that similar types of incidents have happened recently in the United States, such as in Disney World Orlando and Cincinnati Zoo, a reference to the two-year-old boy who died after an alligator attack in June and when a three-year-old boy fell into a gorilla enclosure in May.
— With inputs from AP
