This is the breathtaking moment a herd of elephants held up traffic to cross a road in Thailand.

The jumbos were moving through the forest when they emerged from trees in Nakhon Ratchasima, northeast Thailand, on Sunday afternoon.

Wildlife rangers who had been monitoring the family stopped cars from driving along the mountain road in order to avoid vehicles from startling them

Footage shows how the majestic herd moved in silence as they gracefully crossed the highway before wandering off into nearby hills.

Onlooker Jinwimon said: 'I live in this area and take pictures of the elephants in my spare time. I often see single males on their own but it's very rare to see a whole herd out in the open. It doesn't happen a lot, so this was a very special day.'

Sightings of the Asian elephant increase in the winter months when males are in musth and looking for females. They typically wander alone and don't stay with the herd, which is made of up largely of females, juveniles and babies.

Thailand has an estimated 2,000 Asian elephants living in the wild where they wander freely among protected forests. However, there is often conflict when they come into contact with humans on roads and in villages so wildlife rangers are tasked with monitoring their movements.

A similar number of elephants in the country are also kept in captivity where they work in the tourist industry or get hired out for religious festivals and weddings. A small number still work in commercial logging.