A Polish and a Chinese tourist visiting South Africa’s flagship Kruger National Park were taken to hospital after an elephant charged their car and overturned the vehicle on Monday, park officials said.
An emergency medical team was dispatched by helicopter to the accident scene in the vast park. The Polish man, who was not identified, suffered broken ribs while the Chinese woman, also not identified, had no major injuries, park spokesman William Mabasa said.
“We stay here every day. We meet elephants on the road,” Mabasa said. “We basically give them space but tourists sometimes don’t.”
More than 1 million people visit Kruger each year and incidents of this sort are rare but not unheard of with the animals that can flip cars and uproot trees with ease.
The last incident of this sort took place in November 2012, when an elephant overturned a car, injuring one passenger.
