THE story of a circus elephant which had to be shot by troops when it went on the rampage has been sent to Bygones by a former resident of Blackburn.

Keith Brazendale said: “Older readers will well remember when the circus came to town and the whole troupe arrived at the goods yard in Duckworth Street at Bank Top and paraded to the park.”

He has taken us back to a week before Christmas, back in 1949, when Tarka, a three-ton performing elephant, went wild in a circus train half a mile out of Preston station.

Before Bren gun bursts killed her, she seized a bear trainer in a her trunk, threw him through the window of her van, smashed the sides to firewood and held up trains for five hours.

Afterwards a crane was used to unload the animal’s body which was then removed by a firm of slaughterers.

People along the line had been wakened by her mad trumpeting as the train travelled along in the early morning darkness.

While five keepers in the swaying van tried frantically to calm Tarka, signalman Eric Sumner, heard the splintering of wood and stopped the train.

It was the beginning of a night which took the shape of a full scale military operation, with army officers, railway officials police, two vets and an RSPCA inspector, planning strategy.

An SOS was sent out to Fulwood Barracks and a firing squad arrived to shoot the 50-year-old elephant, worth £3,000, which had entertained thousands at Blackpool Tower Circus.

Also on the train were four other elephants, a troop of horses and 11 bears.