A rampaging buffalo in heat killed a farmer and his daughter-in-law in a rice field in northeast Thailand.

The four-year-old beast, Chao Kong, was said to have gone berserk when he was forced to work in fields during the mating season in Buriram province on November 15.

He was said to have gored farmer Somjit Chinsorn, 77, to death before trampling Pairoh Namkam, 43, when she tried to flee to a nearby rice paddy.

Police rushed to the scene, some two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the nearest village, after being notified of the attack at 4 pm local time. They discovered Somjit lying motionless, with a pool of his blood seeping into the grassy ground.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Karun Chanthok of the Lam Plai Mat Police Station said: 'Mr Somjit was found lying on his back with deep wounds in his neck and abdomen.

'Some 20 metres away, his daughter-in-law was unconscious in the paddy with bruises across her body. We rushed her to Lam Plai Mat Hospital, but she later passed away.'

Chao Kong, who weighs around 800 kilos (1,763 lbs), was tethered to a tree by shocked villagers, who claimed he went on a rampage after being unable to mate during the busy rice harvest season.

Somjit's wife Yon Chinsorn, 59, said her son had bought Chao Kong when he was just a nine-month-old calf, to help the family earn more income.

She said: 'During the rice harvest, we didn't have any buffaloes brought in for Chao Kong to breed. He might have been frustrated so he attacked my husband and daughter-in-law.

'I don't want to raise him anymore. Seeing him reminds me of their deaths. Those who want him can take him away.'