SYDNEY, Dec 27, 2007 (AFP) - A elephant crushed a circus worker to death in Australia Thursday as it was being unloaded from a truck, police said.

Police said the accident happened late Thursday at Yamba, about 680 kilometres (420 miles) north of Sydney.

Media reports said the dead worker was a 50-year-old man who had worked as an elephant handler for two years, although police were unable to confirm the details.

'It appears that the elephant was being unloaded for a circus when it fell on a person,' a police spokeswoman told AFP.

An ambulance service spokesman said the deceased suffered a cardiac arrest at the scene and could not be revived.