68-year-old woman seriously injured by elephant at Czech circus

PRAGUE, Czech Republic—A woman feeding elephants at a Czech circus was seriously injured when one of the animals lifted her up and dropped her to the ground with its trunk, police said on Friday.

The 68-year-old woman underwent surgery after the incident at the circus in southeastern Czech city of Zlin.

“One elephant grabbed her handbag strap with its trunk while the woman held onto the handbag firmly,” the police said in a statement.

“The elephant lifted the woman to a height of about two meters (six feet) and carried her over the fence into the paddock. The strap broke after a while and the woman fell on the grass in the paddock.”

The woman suffered a serious leg injury in the incident on Tuesday.

“She has had a surgery, she is in a stable condition and doctors believe she will recover,” Zlin regional hospital spokeswoman Dana Lipovska told Agence France-Presse.

The police said they were investigating the circus manager for negligence as well as looking into the woman’s part in the incident.

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