The elephant performed as usual yesterday afternoon in Lizy-sur-Ourcq -- some 50 kilometres from Paris -- and was then taken back to its open-air enclosure.
Witnesses described how the elephant had grabbed a tarpaulin and placed it over the electric fence surrounding its pen, before breaking through barriers and trailers that formed a second enclosure.
The elephant then moved towards the elderly man and struck him with its trunk, slamming him to the ground.