A female elephant was caught by locals raiding a government-owned grocery store in Valparai, southern India.

Footage filmed on September 9 shows the elephant using her trunk to break down the wall of the food store.

Villagers blew a siren and made loud noises to scare the animal away but it did not work and the elephant took a bag of rice.

The villagers said elephants do not eat rice but just chew the grain for its salt content and spit it out. They can reportedly easily smell the rice bags kept in grocery shops and head straight to them.

A female elephant, known for her weakness for rice, raided and destroyed a government-owned grocery shop at an estate near Valparai in southern India.

Residents said an elephant herd passed by the estate on September 9. A female elephant left the herd and stepped into the village. She went straight to the locked grocery shop and broke it down.

The villagers blew siren and made noise to scare her away. But she ignored them, demolished the mud walls of the grocery shop and took a bag of rice away.

Villagers said elephants did not eat rice but just chew the grain for its salt content and spit it out. They can reportedly easily smell the rice bags kept in grocery shops and head straight to them.

The female elephant is known for her weakness for rice and comes raiding regularly, said villagers.