Hot weather may have enraged elephant that trampled Scottish tourist to death on Koh Samui

A Scottish tourist has been trampled to death by an elephant on the Thai tourist island of Koh Samui, police said Tuesday, the latest deadly attack by animals used to entertain holidaymakers.

The man, identified by police as Gareth Crowe, 36, was riding on the animal’s back with his daughter on Monday afternoon when it suddenly threw them off, police said.

“We suspect that the hot weather made the elephant angry and that he was not accustomed to his mahout,” Paiboon Omark, Samui district chief, said.

A mahout is the person who trains, controls and rides an elephant, usually after years of building up a close bond with the animal.

Paiboon said Crowe had a prosthetic leg and was unable to run away from the marauding pachyderm.

His daughter and the mahout, a Myanmar national, were both injured but escaped and are out of danger, he added.