A wild elephant held up cars after going for an early morning walk along a mountain road in Thailand.

The jumbo emerged from the forest before venturing onto the highway in Nakhon Nayok province in the northeast of the country on December 3.

Footage shows how a row of vehicles stopped and cut their engines while they waiting for the animal to pass.

It rummaged through the back of a pick-up truck in search of food before moving onto the next car.

Onlooker Sukkasem watched as the jumbo’s ivory tusks brushed past his window.

He said: ‘I’ve never been this close to a wild elephant so I was just staying still hoping that it wasn’t disturbed by anything.’

Thailand has an estimated 2,000 Asian elephants living in the wild but there is often conflict when they come into contact with humans on roads and in villages. A similar number of elephants are kept captive where they work in zoos and are hired out for religious festivals and weddings.