Violent elk put down in Sweden after attack on woman

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The incident occurred in Luleå on Sunday afternoon when the woman was out walking her dogs. Local media reported that she was close to her home when she encountered the elk, who kicked her to the ground and then trampled over her.

Witnesses rang the emergency services and the woman was rushed to the local Sunderby hospital. Despite initial reports that the woman was severely injured, she was later released from hospital after having stitches on her lip and been treated for cuts and bruises.

"It ended happily after all but what if it had been a small child that had been attacked by an elk," the woman's partner Nils-Göran Berglund to the newspaper.

Berglund had been shovelling snow in his driveway when he heard his partner scream out for help. He told the newspaper that she was bleeding from her mouth but was fully conscious when the ambulance arrived.

Following the attack the Norbotten police gave an order for the elk to be killed.

"She had been out with her dogs. Then the elk came along and rushed past. To find out what happened and in what way is difficult to know," Catrin Hedqvist of the local police told the TT news agency.

Local media reported that the elk attack was the second in the space of a few days in the area. On Friday a 69-year-old man was also attacked when he was walking his dog.

"It felt like I had been run over by a train," he told Kuriren.

Police suspect it may have been the same elk which attacked the woman on Sunday. The animal has since been put down.

Meanwhile the elk hunter who was attacked by a bear in eastern Sweden on Saturday is making a good recovery in hospital. He fired two shots at the bear, which has not yet been found by local authorities.