A young Spanish student who was in Thailand on vacation died on Friday after being attacked by an elephant while she was bathing it, according to sources from the police and the centre where the incident occurred, as reported by
The incident took place on the island of Yao Yai, in southwestern Thailand, as reported by Big Sur. While she was bathing the animal, she walked past it and was struck by one of its tusks. The wounds inflicted by the elephant caused the young woman’s subsequent death, according to the same sources.
The tourist, identified as 22-year-old Blanca Ojanguren from Valladolid, was at the Koh Yao Elephant Care centre, which specialises in these animals doing a recreational activity. Washing elephants, or bathing with them, are popular activities in some such centres in Thailand, where the animals also participate in shows for tourists.
“The Consulate in Bangkok is in contact with the relatives, offering all necessary consular assistance,” said Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares.
The death of the young woman comes weeks after a 49-year-old Thai woman was fatally attacked by a wild elephant while she was walking along a trail to the Phen Phop Mai waterfall inside the Phu Kradueng National Park in Thailand’s Loei province.
In the past 12 years, there have been 240 deaths from wild elephant attacks in the country, including 39 fatalities in 2024, according to Department of National Parks data cited by The Nation newspaper.
Thailand’s Department of National Parks estimates that more than 4,000 wild elephants live in Thailand’s sanctuaries, national parks and nature reserves, a growing population but still well below the 300,000 pachyderms that inhabited the country more than a century ago. There is also a similar estimated population of domestic elephants in the country, most of them used in shows for tourists.
