Terrified drivers had a scary encounter with a wild elephant that wandered onto a road and grabbed food from a pick-up truck.

The male jumbo emerged from woodland and stopped approaching vehicles in Chachoengsao province on March 26.

Footage shows the elephant blocking a pick-up truck before tearing bags of food from the back. They were then spilt onto the ground.

Other motorists drove slowly and tried to skirt around the large animal to avoid startling it.

Onlooker Gift Monchai said: 'I've never come across a wild elephant before. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the wild animal in real life.'

The elephant stayed in the road for more than 10 minutes before disappearing back into the jungle.

Thailand has an estimated 2,000 Asian elephants living in the wild but they sometimes 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.

Conservationists even believe that some elephants have even evolved to prefer food from humans driving passing cars over the jungle food.

Staff from the country's National Park - the sprawling area of woodland where wild elephants roam freely - believe the animals have changed their behaviour in response to the food readily available from humans.

Plucking food from homes and cars is easier for them and they are often attracted by the smell and sight, conservation officer Supanya Chengsutha said.