THE travelling companions of a girl who was killed by an elephant whilst on safari in Zambia say they feel ‘helpless’ as a result of red tape preventing the body being repatriated.

Laura Peláez (pictured), 29, from Antequera (Málaga), was flown to the capital city, Lusaka, yesterday.

Her body then has to be flown on to Johannesburg (South Africa) before being taken back to Spain tomorrow.

But bureaucracy is holding up the proceedings.

Her tour companions say they will not move from Lusaka until Laura is repatriated, since they fear that if they leave the area this will not happen.

The Spanish government is liasing with the embassy in Zimbabwe, since Spain has no representation in Zambia.

Spain’s leaders say they will make the ‘maximum effort’ to speed up the return of Laura’s body.

Laura, who worked in a textile company in Torremolinos (Málaga) had made the same safari trip on three previous occasions.

This time, she had gone there with a work colleague, whilst the other 20 or so members of the party are from other parts of Spain, mainly Madrid and Barcelona.