Ranchi

At least six people, including four members of a family, were trampled to death by a herd of wild elephants in Jharkhand's Hazaribag district on Friday, a forest officer said.

The herd, which had attacked several people over the last few days, entered Gondwar village in Churchu block on Thursday night and trampled six people to death early on Friday, Hazaribag East Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Vikas Kumar Ujjwal told PTI.

"Among those killed were four members of a family. One child was also seriously injured," Ujjwal said.

The child has been admitted to the Sadar Hospital in Hazaribag for treatment, he said.

The herd had been roaming in Bokaro, Ramgarh and Hazaribag districts for the past few days and had earlier caused casualties in Bokaro, Ujjwal added.

He said the bodies will be sent for post-mortem examination.

"We had alerted villagers through the public address system as the herd entered the block. Unfortunately, when people tried to flee from their houses, six of them were trampled to death," he said.

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The process of providing compensation for the kin of the victims will be initiated.

Meanwhile, a quick response team has been deployed to drive out the herd from the block, the officer added.