Rhino kills woman, injures four others in market in Nepal

A one-horned rhino killed a woman and injured four other people after it strayed from a protected area and entered a busy marketplace in central Nepal yesterday, police said.

The rhino travelled some 15km from the famed Chitwan National Park to Hetauda town, which located about 50km southwest of the nation's capital, Kathmandu.

In Hetauda, it charged and trampled five people, including a 61-year-old woman who died from her injuries, Deputy Superintendent of Police Sishu Sharma said by phone from the town.

"The rhino first attacked and injured three people in the town before it entered Hetauda Hospital where it attacked and injured two more people," Sharma said.

The rhino was still there yesterday as the local authorities were waiting for the arrival of three trained elephants that will be used to guide the animal back to the national park.

One-horned rhinos are an endangered species. Nepal's protected areas are home to 534 of them. Nepal had achieved zero poaching in 2011 and 2013, leading to an increase in the number of rhinos and tigers.