“We were on our way from the rubber plantation to the camp when a group of about ten elephants approached,” a worker from Phuc Cuong Company’s rubber forest in Chu Se District said.

“The elephants were very fierce and destroyed all the trees in their way.

We had to run for our lives after one of them saw us and roared,” he said.

Reports said the elephants had also terrorized others who went into the forest.

“This is the first time so many elephants have come out of the forest,” a local from Ia Blu Commune in Chu Se District, Ksor Lam, said.

Local residents said the wild animals might be from the jungle in Ea Hleo District in Dak Lak Province.

They said they were hungry and looking for food as they destroyed all the young banana trees on their way.

“Elephants pose a much greater threat when there are many workers being employed to plant new trees,” Phuc Cuong Company director Hoang Trong Sam said.

Chu Se District authorities are working with the company to find a solution to the elephant problem.

Workers have been instructed not to hurt the animals.

Wild elephants are protected in Vietnam.

Reported by Thien Truc