February 23, 2007: Elephant polo rampage

[Undertoad]

Three years ago, IotD pointed to Elephant polo in Sri Lanka. This year's polo did not go so well. In the middle of the match, the above elephant became enraged somehow, threw its riders, and ran off and decided to attack this van.

At the MSNBC story there is an amazing video of the event. Once the elephant decided to attack the van - which, it turns out, was the opposing team's van - it could not be dissuaded. Young spectators and trainers try to get it away from the van by peppering it with rocks and poking it with sticks. For some reason, this does not seem to calm the big bully. For a while it goes off and destroys some stands, but eventually it returns to the van, and head-butts it from all sides.

Eventually it pushed the whole thing over. Look at the power - all the elephant's feet are almost off the ground.

They used a tranquilizer gun to subdue the beast.



Here's a better idea... a non-contact sport, just a performance for tourists in Thailand.

Thanks xoB for the first image, from WaPo Day in Pics.