This is the moment a wild elephant stalled traffic on a road as park rangers assisted stranded drivers in Thailand.

Footage shows the male jumbo walking in the middle of two lanes amid stopped cars in Nakhon Nayok province on November 18.

The creature was following a park ranger's truck whose driver signalled motorists to turn off their engines to prevent scaring the animal.

Driver Patinya Wisuth said: ‘We were scared of the elephant. It could easily crush our cars with its big body.

‘The park ranger also told us not to make a sound. It's very important that the elephant remained calm or the drivers and the animal could be in danger too.'

Patinya added that the park rangers knew what to do and successfully guided the elephant back to the forest.

She said: ‘The park rangers were very helpful. They were able to guide the elephant back to its home. It followed them back to the jungle.'

No one was reported hurt and traffic returned to normal after about half an hour.

Thailand has an estimated 2,000 Asian elephants living in the wild where they wander freely among protect forests. However, there is often conflict when they come into contact with humans on roads and in villages.

A similar number of elephants are 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.