Circus elephant falls killing Australian handler

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An elephant toppled out of a truck and killed a circus worker in Australia on Thursday, police said.

"The man was killed, crushed to death, while the elephant was being offloaded from a truck," a spokeswoman for the New South Wales police department said.

The Stardust Circus, with elephants Arna and Gigi among the star attractions, was setting up for a performance at Yamba, a town on Australia's mid-east coast.

An ambulance spokesman said the man had been crushed by the elephant and suffered a fatal cardiac arrest at the scene.

Local television said the victim had been Arna's handler for the past two years.

(Reporting by James Regan and Michael Perry; editing by Roger Crabb)