KATHMANDU, Sept 13 (Reuters) - A wild elephant killed at least four people, including a 12-year-old girl, in a village in southeast Nepal on Saturday, police said.

"The elephant dragged the victims from their homes while they were sleeping and then trampled them to death," police officer Lakshman Neupane said by telephone from Rajbraj, 200 km (125 miles) southeast of the Nepali capital Kathmandu.

Police were trying to chase the elephant out of the village, he said.

Nepal has about 250 elephants, including about 100 domesticated animals that are used by hotels and national parks for safaris.

Elepants are protected by law in Nepal and anyone found guilty of killing one can face up to 15 years in jail. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Bappa Majumdar and Paul Tait) (For the latest Reuters news on Nepal see:http://in.reuters.com, for blogs see http://blogs.reuters.com/in/)

AlertNet news is provided by