CAPE ELIZABETH — Officials say an unarmed park ranger in Maine used a weed whacker to chase away a fox after it attacked a 3-year-old and the child’s mother at a popular state park. A police officer eventually clubbed it to death.

Conservation Department spokeswoman Jeanne Curran says the gray fox appeared to be healthy but was behaving aggressively this afternoon at Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth.

Rangers evacuated the park as police searched for the fox.

Curran says the fox nipped at a ranger near the park entrance around noon before showing up near a playground, where it bit the 3-year-old on the hand and leg before going after the mother.

Mother and child sought refuge in a bathroom before being taken to a hospital.

The animal will be tested for rabies.

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