MOSCOW, Oct 10 (Reuters) - A nervous elephant at a Russian zoo killed its handler on Wednesday with a single blow of its trunk after lashing out while being moved onto a truck.

Elephant handlers at Moscow city zoo had been trying to load three African elephants onto a specially designed truck to transfer them to a zoo in Spain when the elephant killed the 40-year-old woman.

"It was a most unfortunate death of a dedicated zoo keeper who had worked with these animals for many years," a spokeswoman for the zoo said.

Moscow zoo had wanted to move the elephants because the city centre zoo was too cramped.

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