Mohamad Yusni Mohamad Yunan, 26, was asleep in a hut in a small rubber plantation in northern Kedah state when he was attacked early Sunday. He was gored in his right thigh and chest.

"I saw a huge elephant in all its fury and fled on my motorcycle to my grandmother's house about three kilometres away from the smallholding," he was quoted as saying by the state Bernama news agency.

His mother, Siti Aishah Yusof, 46, said elephants had been seen in the jungle near her village in the state's north, but had never attacked humans.

"His grandmother was shocked to see him arrive at the house at about 4am, bleeding and in pain," she said.

Mohamad Yusni was taken to hospital in the state capital Alor Setar.

Wildlife officials were trying to track the elephant, Bernama said.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.