U.S. tourist killed in Zambia elephant attack, the second this year

JOHANNESBURG — A U.S. tourist was killed by an elephant in the Zambian city of Livingstone Wednesday — in the second such attack in the country this year — local officials said.

The officials said Friday that 64-year-old Juliana Gle Tourneau was killed when an elephant that was part of a herd the tourists were watching attacked their vehicle, threw Tourneau out and trampled her.

She was part of a group that had stopped near the Maramba Cultural Bridge due to the traffic caused by the elephant herd near the bridge, they added.

“Juliana Gle Tourneau, 64, of New Mexico, United States of America, died on Wednesday around 17.50 after being knocked from a parked vehicle which had stopped due to traffic caused by elephants around the Maramba Cultural Bridge,” Southern Province Police Commissioner Auxensio Daka told the Zambian national broadcaster, ZNBC.

It is the second such attack this year after another American tourist was killed in March this year during a game drive in a Zambian national park when an elephant charged a truck, flipped it over, killed the tourist and injured five others.

Zambian authorities have called on tourists to exercise extreme caution while observing wildlife around the country.