A “panicked” elephant killed a Spanish woman while she bathed the animal at an elephant center in Thailand, local police said.
Blanca Ojanguren García, 22, was washing the elephant at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Center last Friday when she was gored to death by the animal.
Experts told Spanish newspaper Clarín that the elephant could have been stressed by having to interact with tourists outside its natural habitat.
García, who was a law and international relations student at Spain’s University of Navarra, was living in Taiwan as part of a student exchange program.
She was visiting Thailand with her boyfriend, who witnessed the attack.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said the Spanish consulate in Bangkok was helping García’s family.
BBC News has contacted the elephant care center for comment.
Bathing elephants is a popular activity among tourists in Thailand, which is home to more than 4,000 wild animals and a similar number kept in captivity, according to the National Parks Department.
The Koh Yao center offers “elephant care” packages that allow tourists to prepare and feed the animals, as well as shower and walk with them. These packages cost between 1,900 baht ($55; £44) and 2,900 baht.
Animal advocates have previously criticized elephant bathing activities, pointing out that they disrupt natural grooming behaviors and expose the animals to unnecessary stress and potential injury.
World Animal Protection, an international charity, has for years urged countries, including Thailand, to stop breeding elephants in captivity.
More than six in ten elephants used for tourism in Asia live in “severely inadequate” conditions, the association said.
“These intelligent, socially complex animals, with the capacity for complex thoughts and emotions, endure profound suffering in captivity because their natural social structures cannot be reproduced artificially,” the association said.
