Rampaging elephants trash police checkpoint (Thailand)

Author(s)

Apichart Hongsakul, The Nation

Date Published

Wild elephants rampaged in Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Hua Hin District destroying the police checkpoint on Nong Plab – Pa La-u road. No one was injured.

Pol-Major Suwit Maneewong, the commander of the police aerial re-enforcement company, found that a wild elephant attack last night had collapsed the walls of the dormitory and canteen buildings. 

Suwit said that four officers were stationed at the checkpoint at the time of elephant attack, but none were injured.

“We have set up the permanent road checkpoint at this area for almost 20 years, but no such incident ever happened before,” he said.

“There are many wild elephants live around here, but most of them are friendly and the police also provide them water from time to time.”

However, he noticed that the number of wild elephants in the area has been increasing and some of them were becoming aggressive. In early June one of the local people’s houses was attacked by the herd of wild elephants.

“We will step up the surveillance to inspect the elephants’ behaviour and provide safety for the people and our officers, as we have seen that the elephants are more aggressive,” he added.

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