The environment minister in the German state of Hesse has said that the state government will move to ban travelling circuses that keep wild animals such as elephants, lions and bears from the region, and lobby for a nationwide ban. The move comes after an elephant escaped from a circus last weekend in Buchen, Baden-Württemberg, and crushed a pensioner to death. Investigations are underway to establish whether the elephant was deliberately released by animal rights activists, as the circus' owner has claimed, or whether its enclosure was left unlocked in a case of negligence. Read more: thelocal.de