17 people injured in Sri Lanka after elephants run out of control at religious festival  

Seventeen people were injured in Sri Lanka when two elephants ran amok at a religious festival, police said.

An elephant reportedly threw its owner-driver off it's back and started charging at people watching on the sidewalk.

It all started during the parade in Kotte, near Columbo, when people started running from one elephant that was rampaging through the streets.

Among those hurt, were 13 women who were scrambling to get out of the way of the marauding elephants at the Buddhist pageant on Saturday in Colombo.

Nobody was seriously injured, authorities said.

Elephant expert Jayantha Jayewardene said that the animals were in musth, a period when their reproductive hormones soar, and that said temple authorities had ignored proper procedures.

Authorities in the central pilgrim city of Kandy were forced to withdraw a 70-year-old cow elephant from a gruelling parade in mid-August. The highly emaciated animal had been forced to walk for miles despite her visibly failing health.

Three years ago, two elephants brawled during a temple ceremony and caused a stampede in which one woman died and 12 were wounded.

Official records show there are about 200 domesticated elephants in a country where the population in the wild is estimated at about 7,500.