Elephant kills zookeeper with blow from trunk in Spain

<p>MADRID &mdash; Authorities in Spain’s northern Cantabria region are investigating how an elephant killed a worker at a local zoo.</p>
<p>The Cantabrian regional government says 44-year-old Joaquín Gutiérrez died in a hospital on Tuesday, several hours after a female elephant struck him with its trunk while he was cleaning its enclosure at the Cabárceno Nature Park near Santander.</p>
<p>The blow knocked Gutiérrez back and he hit his head against the pen’s bars, officials said.</p>
<p>Gutiérrez had been working with elephants at the zoo for almost 20 years, local tourism chief Javier López Marcano said in a statement on the regional government’s website.</p>
<p>The elephant that struck him had a foot infection and is likely pregnant, Marcano said. She weighs more than 4 metric tons (4.4 tons) . </p>
<p>Zoo and regional officials could not immediately be contacted Friday.</p>
<p>Police and CANTUR, the regional tourism organization that runs Cabárceno, are investigating the attack.</p>