Thrissur:
A 74-year-old man was beaten to death by a captive elephant by its trunk at Pannithadam near here today, causing concern over increasing incidents of jumbos turning irate with summer festival season getting underway in Kerala.
This was second incident of angry elephants running amok and attacking men while being moved in trucks with the start of the summer festival season.
The victim of today's incident was identified as Simon, who was attacked by the elephant while he was passing along the road through which the truck carrying the tusker came by and hit another vehicle.
The jumbo ran amok while the mahout was helping it to alight from the truck after it hit another vehicle. The irate went on rampage and mortally beat the old man, who was passing by the scene, police said.
The mahout Sivasankaran (49) and another pedestrian, were hospitalised with injuries.
The angry jumbo created scare in the area by running helter skelter for about three hours before it was contained by administering tranquiliser shots by experts.
Three days back, a tusker ran berserk and trampled a motorcyclist to death at nearby Kechery in day light.