Terrifying moment couples cheat death when elephant flips their canoes

This is the terrifying moment two couples from the UK and the US cheated death when a rampaging elephant flipped their safari canoes and struck one of the women with its trunk.

They were being poled ‘gondola style’ through the shallow waters of the Okavango Delta, Botswana, on Saturday. 

But their guides took them too close to a female elephant and her two calves, leading to the bull of the herd charging through the shallow waters and reeds in a fierce attack.

A dramatic footage shows how the guides desperately back pole to try and get away from the trumpeting bull as it closes the gap between them and uses its trunk and tusks to flip two canoes over.

The four tourists on both canoes are tipped into the crocodile-infested waters of the Delta whilst their two guides appear to abandon them and run for the safe riverbank.

The elephant at first appears to have broken off the charge, but a second video shows it returning to attack one of the female tourists.

It rams its victim painfully with its trunk from behind, missing her with both tusks, but knocks her underwater.

It is thought she only survived as the elephant lost her under the murky water and was unable to finish her off by stamping on her, and stopped trying after 10 seconds.

With his herd passing safely by the terrified tourists, the bull considers his job done and turns around and heads off after them, leaving the woman underwater.

She manages to get to her knees and take desperate breaths of air before standing up as her husband wades to her and grabs her hand, and guides her to the safety of the bank.

A former South African game ranger who was shown the videos said: ‘They had a very lucky escape indeed because all four could just have easily been killed by that angry bull.

‘The woman was lucky not have been gored, but if it had held her down for another few seconds, it would probably have drowned her, so she can praise the Lord he didn’t.

‘There are thousands of these dug-out traditional Makoro canoes on the Delta, poling tourists through the reeds to view elephants, hippo, birds, buck and crocodiles.

‘This bull attacked because it was protecting its young, and it seems the guides misjudged how close they could take the tourists safely and made a potentially fatal mistake.

‘There could well have been the need for four body bags if Lady Luck had not favoured them. It will certainly give them a story to tell found the fire for many years to come.’

Kakwele Sinyina said: ‘Yo! If the elephant did not get them, there are many crocodiles and big hippos there that could have killed them, so they had someone looking over them’.

The elephant attack happened on World Tourism Day on Saturday.

Three companies that run Makoro tourist canoes on the Delta would not comment on who ran the trip, but one receptionist said: ‘It was a group made up of British and American visitors.

‘There was a lot of expensive camera equipment and phones lost or damaged, but it is a blessing nobody was badly hurt, but wild animals can be very unpredictable’ she said.

In July, a boatload of British tourists also got much more than they bargained for on a Delta safari when their boat skipper took their craft in too close to a female with her calf.

The 5-ton enraged female attacked whilst trumpeting her anger, and the boat’s engine appears to cut out as it quickly closes the gap and uses its tusks to try and flip it.

The aluminium flat-bottomed boat is lifted up skywards, throwing tourists off their seats as it almost turns the boat over, but her tusks lose their grip on the hull and slip off.

Once the female feels the threat is over, she ends the charge and returns to her calf. There are thousands of elephants in the Delta, which helps attract two million tourists a year.

The Okavango Delta is one of Prince Harry’s favourite places in the world.

He took his first serious girlfriend, Chelsey Davy who he dated from 2004 to 2011, on a ‘love boat’ romantic cruise there after returning from a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2008.

Harry also took his wife, Meghan Markle a romantic break to the Delta in the early days of their relationship, and on a later birthday treat to enjoy the wildlife in the Botswana wilds

Male elephants can grow up to 13 feet tall at the shoulder and run at up to 25mph, and there are 415,000 leading to their status as endangered. They kill 500 people a year.

In July, two female tourists from the UK and New Zealand were charged and killed by a protective elephant while on a walking safari in a national park in Zambia.

The victims, whom he named as Easton Taylor, 68, from the UK and Alison Taylor, 67, from New Zealand, were attacked by a female elephant that was with a calf.

Safari guides who were with the group attempted to stop the elephant from charging at the women by firing shots at it, and wounded i,t but could not stop the attack.

It happened at the South Luangwa National Park in eastern Zambia, about 370 miles from the capital, Lusaka, and both women were pronounced dead at the scene.