A young woman was killed by an Asian elephant at a sanctuary in Thailand on Friday during a bathing session gone wrong, according to officials.

Spanish citizen Blanca Ojanguren, 22, was visiting Koh Yao Elephant Care on Yao Yai Island with her boyfriend at the time of the incident, Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported over the weekend. She studied law at the University of Navarra at the time.

Koh Yao Elephant Care told the Spanish outlet that a 50-year-old elephant pushed Ojanguren with its trunk while she bathed it, causing a fatal blow. Around 18 people were at the sanctuary at the time, including the victim’s boyfriend.

The tourist was rushed to a local hospital where she later died, the sanctuary owner said. The business temporarily closed as a result.

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Experts told Argentine newspaper Clarin that the elephant was likely stressed from interacting with tourists outside its natural habitat, but officials have not released details about what led up to the attack. 

Koh Yao Elephant Care offers tourist packages ranging from $50 to $85 USD, according to its booking website. The company offered two-hour sessions with elephants that included activities ranging from cooking classes to kayak sessions. 

“Visitors often have the opportunity to join guided tours led by knowledgeable staff who educate guests about elephant behavior, biology, and the sanctuary’s mission,” the website reads. “This experience allows for a close encounter with these magnificent animals while respecting their well-being.”

Elephants, which are profoundly gentle and intelligent animals, are known to occasionally kill humans when under physical and psychological distress. In 2022, an Asian elephant ripped its trainer in half with its tusk in Thailand’s Phang Nga province.

Officials later discovered that the elephant’s handler had it haul wood to a rubber plantation in hot weather, causing the animal to become overwhelmed.

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Elephants Boon Thong, Ronaaldo and his mother, Lersu, stand on a hillside near Mae Sapok Village on July 21, 2020, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. (Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images)

At the time, Save the Asian Elephants CEO Duncan McNair told Newsweek that elephants are sensitive to abuse and can become stressed by human behavior.

“[It] is yet another stark reminder that Asian elephants are, and always remain, wild animals that can attack and kill when they are abused or overly stressed by humans,” McNair said.

At zoos in the United States, visitors and most staff members are usually prohibited from touching elephants. But elephant sanctuaries in Thailand lure tourists with promises of up-close interactions with the animals.

According to the Global Federal of Animal Sanctuaries, the quality of animal sanctuaries, including elephant sanctuaries, varies widely.

“It is a poorly regulated industry, in which facilities that keep animals in deplorable conditions can identify themselves as compared to those of the highest quality,” the site reads. “For anyone invested in the welfare of captive animals, there is a need to differentiate the best sanctuaries and rescues to determine where funds would be best invested, where the need for help is greatest, who provides a model to follow and who can be turned to in times of crisis.”

Asian elephants are gentle animals but are still capable of killing humans in certain situations. (iStock)

Koh Yao Elephant Care did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Fox News Digital reached out to wildlife experts for more information.

Patients visiting Portuguese hospitals with urgent cases are having to wait more than nine hours in some cities until they can be admitted into hospitals.

The government’s National Health Service – the SNS – reported on Monday that many hospitals in the capital Lisbon are struggling with high demands and shortages in labour.

Urgent patients at the Amadora Sintra Hospital in the outskirts of Lisbon faced an average of eight hour waiting periods before they were able to see a medical professional.

But the excessively long wait times are not just limited to Lisbon. In Coimbra and Portimão, nine hour wait times for urgent patients were also reported. The situation there slightly improved later in the day after local health officials activated contingency plans to better manage the situation.

The delays are not just affecting needing patients, but also other state services. Mario Conde, a Fire Brigade Commander in Amadora says the delays are suffocating their resources.  

“We have some constraints in the emergency service for the population because we have a lot of services in the area of ​​hospital support and having an ambulance at the hospital for 40 minutes is a long time and we can hardly provide quick and effective assistance with this waiting time because there is a lack of resources for all the people.”

The increased demand on Portuguese health facilities is due to a recent outbreak of bird flu. The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) reported an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) strains among poultry on a farm near Lisbon on Monday.

The H5N1 strain was detected in a flock of more than 55,000 birds in the village of São João das Lampas, approximately 40 km away from the capital. The outbreak caused the death of almost 280 birds according to the Paris-based WOAH who were citing Portuguese authorities.

The spread of avian influenza, commonly referred to as bird flu, has raised concerns among governments and the poultry industry after proving deadly in recent years. The spread of the virus in the past has also disrupted supply chains significantly, resulting in higher food prices as well as the risk of human transmission.

“The flu virus is on the increase, we’re not at the peak yet, we’re still in a growing phase. And the fact that we have a low vaccination rate under the age of 85 means that the virus can circulate more easily,” says Gustavo Tato Borges from the Public Health Medical Association.

The SNS did however report later on Monday that wait times were slowly going down. Portuguese officials say that regardless of the wait times, all patients seeking medical attention were receiving treatment eventually.

“There are more emergency rooms open, we currently have 8 clinics open in the Coimbra region, we have more inpatient beds for respiratory patients and this is what is allowing us to have shorter waiting times. Patients are being reorganized, but even though there is a waiting time for the first medical observation, all the patients in our care are being treated,” says Claudia Nazareth, Clinical Director of the Coimbra Local Health Unit.

But the situation remains challenging, as the Portuguese health service is not operating at full capacity.

Six emergency services were closed on Monday, while another 13 services were reserved for internal emergencies, only working on cases referred by the National Emergency Medical Institute (INEM) and the SNS line.

The closed services were mostly in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, with only one in the centre, which only deals with obstetrics, gynaecology and paediatric emergencies.