Elderly hiker dies after Cow attack in Austrian alps.

An 85-year-old man has died after he and his wife were trampled by a herd of cows while hiking with their dog in the Austrian Alps, local police said on Monday.

The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon in Ramsau am Dachstein, a popular hiking area in Austria's Styria province, as the couple—retired residents of Vienna were walking along a forest road toward a mountain hut.

According to police spokesman Markus Lamb, the couple was just below the Austria Hut when a herd of nine cows, including three calves, suddenly charged at them.

Both the man and his 82-year-old partner were severely injured.

Nearby hikers and staff from the refuge hut witnessed the attack, rushed to help, administered first aid, and called emergency services. The couple was transported to a hospital in Salzburg, where the man died shortly before undergoing emergency surgery. His wife remains hospitalized.

Fatal cow attacks are rare in Austria, a country of over nine million people where herds often graze freely in alpine pastures during the summer.

Authorities are investigating the circumstances of the incident, with an autopsy pending.

This is the second deadly cow-related incident in Austria in recent years. In 2024, a woman hiking with two small dogs was fatally attacked by a cow herd in the Salzburg region.

Following a similar fatal incident in 2014, the Austrian government introduced a "code of conduct" for alpine hikers.