Four tourists rescued by elephant from raging river in Chiang Mai
Four tourists rescued by elephant from river in Chiang Mai after their raft sinks
One of four elephants rescued by a monk in Chiang Mai braved a torrential river to rescue four tourists after their raft sank in the middle of the river on Friday.
The monk, Phra Kru Sangkhrak Virawat, said the incident happened on Friday afternoon in Mae Taeng River in Tambon Mae Taman of Chiang Mai’s Mae Taeng district.
The monk had gathered donations to buy four elephants to rescue them from street begging and hired a group of mahouts to take care of them at a camp near the accident scene.
The monk said he was visiting the camp to check the well-being of the elephants and saw a raft with two men and two women sinking, and the tourists were clinging to a bush in the middle of the river.
He said caretakers of the four elephants rushed in to help immediately. He said the handler of Valentine, the nearest elephant to the spot, commanded it into the torrent to save the tourists from drowning. Other handlers and their elephants were on standby.
The handler helped the four tourists on to the back of Valentine, which swam back to the shore safely.
The monk said the four tourists thanked the elephant and handler for saving them in time.
The monk shared a video clip of the incident on his Facebook wall, and the clip became viral, shared by many media, and the elephant and the handler won a lot of praises from Thai social networkers.
