This is the moment a Buddhist monk rode an albino buffalo to herd animals across a flooded field.

Monk Palad Wattana Sirisuwanno guided the animals out of the temple when the flash floods submerged their compound in a 5-foot-deep deluge in Sukhothai province.

Village officials waited for the priest and the animals on higher ground, ready to assist them before giving the albino buffaloes a health check.

The animal-loving monk said: ‘We had to leave the temple because it was flooded, but we could not just leave our pets.

‘I took them with me and we fled together. I am relieved that we were able to cross the fields safely.’

The six buffaloes – a pregnant albino mother and her calves – were safe and uninjured. They will stay at a nearby farm temporarily until the water recedes.

Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are in the middle of their tropical monsoon rainy season, which lasts until October or November. Soaring temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius are often followed by powerful tropical storms with thunder, lightning, rain and flash floods.