“panicked” elephant killed a Spanish tourist while she was bathing an animal at a sanctuary in southern Thailand, police said Monday.

According to police, the 23-year-old woman was hit by the trunk of a stressed animal at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Center in Phang Nga province.

“The tourist was killed while bathing an elephant,” Jaran Bangprasert, the local police chief, told AFP.

The refuge declined to provide details of the incident when contacted by AFP.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo identified the victim as Blanca Ojanguren García. The outlet reported that she and her boyfriend were among eight tourists at the sanctuary when the incident occurred. El País reported that she was a fifth-year student of law and international relations at the University of Navarra and that she had recently completed an internship at the Spanish Navy Command in Madrid.

ua posting on social networksthe mayor of Valladolid in Spain offered his condolences.

“My deepest condolences to the family of Blanca Ojanguren,” wrote Jesus Julio Carnero.

The Spanish Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said that the Spanish Consulate in Bangkok is assisting the family of Ojanguren García, The BBC announced.

The Koh Yao center offers “elephant care” packages that allow tourists to prepare food and feed the animals, as well as shower and walk with them, writes the BBC. These packages cost between 1,900 baht ($55; £44) and 2,900 baht.

Wild elephants have killed 227 people, including tourists, in the past 12 years, according to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.

Last month, a 49-year-old woman was killed by an elephant in a national park in Loei province in northern Thailand.

Last year, two American women were killed in separate elephant attacks in Zambia.

While encounters between villagers and wild elephants are frequent, attacks on sanctuaries remain rare.

Bathing elephants is a popular activity among visitors in Thailand, where about 2,800 elephants are kept for tourism purposes across the country, according to World animal protection.

However, animal rights groups claim that bathing elephants can cause them distress, and some sanctuaries in the country do not allow it.

In 2014, park rangers in Thailand found the American woman’s body who was apparently trampled to death by elephants in a reserve outside Bangkok.