The heart-stopping moment shows an elephant charging towards a safari vehicle and beginning to rummage through it for food.
The giant bull elephant’s tusk pierces a seat as he ransacks the vehicle, met by screaming holidaymakers.
During the three-minute footage shot in Sri Lanka, the hungry beast investigates the open truck with his trunk.
A video taken by a spectator from inside the vehicle shows how near the several-ton beast came to tourists with its tusks.
One of the tusks at one point appears to puncture through a chair in the car.
Women at the back of the truck can be heard pleading for him to drive, while another screams: ‘Drive, please drive, please, please’.
The elephant reaches for the cameraman’s rucksack during its search for food, then smashes its tusks against the truck’s outside bars. It returns to the vehicle with its head and uses its trunk to explore three women.
The tour guide can be heard shouting that they should avoid touching the animal. The tourists yell at the driver to start the engine as the elephant backs away from the truck.
One hysterical woman shouts: ‘It’s coming, it’s coming. Go, oh my god, go!’
The video comes to an end with the elephant chasing after the car before giving up and grazing in nearby bushes. Since it was posted to LiveLeak, the video has been viewed more than 1,000 times.
