Close encounters of the pachyderm kind
Runners in a Chon Buri event experienced a few moments of fear after a stretch of the trail brought them face to face with wild elephants.
One of the runners was injured during the encounter on Sunday.
Volunteers revealed that the injured runner was among those participating in the 25-km run along the Ploung Thong Trail, which aims to conserve the Prasae riverhead zone in Tambon Ploung Thong of Chon Buri’s Bo Thong district.
“At about kilometre 10 of the trail, the runners ran into wild elephants. Forestry officials fired some shots to scare off the giants but without success. The runners had to make a dash for it and one of them fell during the escape and broke her arm,” a volunteer said on condition of anonymity.
Trakoon Sawan-arom, the kamnan of Tambon Ploung Thong and the chair of the event-organising committee, said Monday that apart from the runner who fell, another was injured because a wild elephant hit her with its trunk.
“Forestry officials helped the injured runners and rushed them to hospital,” he said, adding that he had already visited them at a local hospital.
He denied rumours that a wild elephant stomped on a runner.