Wild elephant kills four in Bangladesh

DHAKA (Reuters) - A wild elephant straying into a village trampled four members of a family to death and injured another in southeastern Bangladesh, witnesses said on Friday.

The elephant attacked the villagers on Thursday night in the Bandarban hill district's Lama area, 350 km (210 miles) from the capital Dhaka.

It damaged several shops and three houses before returning to a nearby forest, villagers told reporters.

Elephants, an endangered species in Bangladesh, have killed 15 people on average annually in recent years in this South Asian country, where their forest habitats have shrunk due to encroachment by the rising human population.

One of the world's most densely populated nations, Bangladesh has forest cover of only 17.5 percent. There are around 400 elephants in the country -- including 100 in captivity.

(Reporting by Azad Majumder; Writing by Anis Ahmed; Editing by Jerry Norton)