Kenyan ranch owner trampled to death by elephant

Gilfrid Powys was killed near a dam which features as a watering point for wild animals

'One of the elephants charged and trampled him to death' (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)

A rancher has been trampled to death by an elephant in Kenya.

Gilfrid Powys was director of the 43,000 acre Suyian Ranch in northwest Laikipia.

He was killed near a dam which features as a watering point for wild animals, the Daily Nation reported.

"One of the elephants charged and trampled him to death,” Laikipia County police boss Simon Kipkeu told the paper.

Mr Powys' ranch was used for cattle farming and wildlife conservation, according to the ranch's website.

His family moved from Dorset in the UK to Kenya in 1914.

It comes after an elephant who appeared in Thai films and TV adverts crushed its owner to death at a zoo in the northern city of Chiang Mai.

Earlier this month, disturbing footage emerged of an Asian elephant being beaten by a captors in an attempt to tame it for India's tourism trade.

The video shows men taking turns to beat the mammal with canes, who has one of its front legs tied to a tree, before it collapses to the ground as the beating continues.