Elephant kills handler in Moscow zoo

A nervous female elephant at Moscow zoo killed its handler on Wednesday with a hit of its leg while being moved onto a truck.

Photo: Elephant kills handler in Moscow zoo

Elephant handlers at Moscow city zoo had been trying to load three African elephants onto a specially designed truck to transfer them to a zoo in Spain when the elephant killed the 40-year-old woman.

"It was a most unfortunate death of a dedicated zoo keeper who had worked with these animals for many years," a spokeswoman for the zoo said.

Moscow zoo had wanted to move the elephants because the city centre zoo was too cramped.

Olga Gorelovskaya, 40, worked as elephant handler for more than 10 years and her co-workers say that she spoke common language with these giant animals.

Such an incident was not the first in Moscow. In 2001 an elephant killed its trainer, Pravda.Ru reports.