Honeymoon gone bad

British Man Trampled to Death by Elephant While on Honeymoon in Kenya

Monday, October 02, 2006

NAIROBI, Kenya —  An elephant has trampled and killed a British tourist on his honeymoon in Kenya, officials said Monday.

The man, who was not immediately identified, was killed in front of his wife in the Masai Mara National Reserve on Sunday, officials said.

"He was trampled by an elephant while on a nature trail with his wife," said Connie Maina, spokeswoman for the Kenya Wildlife Service. "This is a terrible accident."

The couple had been married for just a week, Maina said.

They had arrived in Kenya for their honeymoon and were staying at the luxury Richard's Camp lodge in the game reserve. The camp is on the edge of a forest in the Masai Mara conservation area, some 106 miles southwest of the capital, Nairobi.

The couple set out for their nature walk Sunday morning and were with an escort just 300 yards outside the camp when the elephant attacked, Maina said.

"We think the elephant must have been at very close proximity to the couple and was surprised," she said. "They don't normally do this kind of thing."

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"It is terrible," Maina said. "They were on honeymoon. The wife saw what happened. I am told the wife is OK but is shaken up."

The British High Commission said officials were trying to contact other relatives to inform them of the death.

Kenya's elephant population is estimated at 35,000, down from a peak of 167,000 in the 1970s. The elephant population declined because of rampant poaching in the 1980s that was reversed in the 1990s.