A Sri Lankan TV journalist was today crushed to death while filming a wild elephant that rampaged through a village in eastern Sri Lanka, police said.
Freelance journalist Priyantha Ratnayake, 43, was attacked at a village in Minneriya, about 200 kilometres northeast of here.
There were no other casualties, only minor damage to some houses.
Ratnayake's final footage, shared by colleagues on the Internet, showed the elephant charging while he tried to run away after capturing several minutes of the action.
The tape goes blank as he falls and is trampled.
He worked for two private television stations.
"I saw him falling. The elephant circled him twice and then crushed Priyantha with its head," another freelance journalist Rasanga Niroshan told reporters.
Officials said this was the first death of a journalist while filming an elephant in an area where the jumbos often go on rampage.
