Colleagues stop to poo at highway, attacked by elephant

File pic of an elephant at Zoo Negara.

TAIPING: A man and woman were attacked by an elephant on the East-West Expressway near Gerik.

The incident is believed to have occurred on Friday at about 5.30pm as the pair stopped their car on the highway, some 20km from Gerik, to relieve themselves from stomachaches.

The man, 48, and his 40-year-old female colleague from Jakarta, had got out from their car and gone behind some bushes by the roadside when the incident occurred.

The man's brother, known as Robert, said the victims had been on their way to Penang after a business event in Terengganu.

"He was relieving himself when he saw a 'rock' moving.

"He tried to run but was nudged by the elephant's trunk and fell down," Robert said when met at the Taiping Hospital where both victims are being treated.

"The elephant then stepped on him," he added.

Robert said the woman, shocked by the incident, ran and tripped, injuring herself.

Perak Health Committee chairman Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon, who visited the two on Saturday, said both victims had sustained rib fractures.

"They are still being observed," he said.