A male camel in rut trampled two people to death at the Camel Kisses farm in north Texas, KFDX television station reported on Sunday.

A man had entered a pen holding a male and two female camels at the farm near Wichita Falls on Saturday, KFDX said. The male then charged the man, named as Mark Mere, 53.

The farm's owner, Peggye McNair, 72, tried to close the gate to the pen but was also stomped, the Wichita County Sheriff's Office told the television station.

"It appears that both victims were trampled by the camel," police said in a statement, according to the Times Record News in Wichita Falls, located about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Dallas.

McNair, a former bank executive, had raised camels for nearly two decades, often welcoming children at her camel ranch, the newspaper said.

Mere entered the pen because a water trough was frozen over, Wichita County Sheriff David Duke told KFDX. Authorities were given permission to put down the male camel.