A national park in South Africa has had to put down an aggressive elephant that attacked a car and injured one of the passengers, officials say.

Kruger National Park was the scene of a frightening ordeal on December 30 when a bull elephant rushed a car passing through the park and attacked it, overturning and then trampling the vehicle. Luckily for the passengers, the elephant focused on the back of the car and they were able to escape, but not before schoolteacher Sarah Brooks was stabbed in the thigh by the creature’s tusk.

“The car is a wreck, if I may put it that way,” said park manager William Mabasa. “I mean it was completely flattened but fortunately the elephant concentrated on the back of the car, that’s why we still have our guests alive now as I speak.”

Park officials believe the elephant was “on musth”, meaning testosterone levels were raised in a periodic condition that makes them aggressive. It was also wounded, an indication that it had been fighting. It later had to be put down.

“It could have engaged in a fight with other bulls where it was eventually expelled, and when an elephant is in that state it will be very aggressive and I think that’s the reason why we had a case like this one,” Mabasa said.

A second car full of visitors captured the scary moment on video but managed to escape before the elephant moved on.

The moment that I saw the elephant start to attack their car I knew that there was nothing that we could do to stop it,” a witness in the car said, “so I proceeded to drive to the nearest town in the Kruger National Park to get help.”

Image via YouTube