A wild elephant held up a street stall to eat food as locals cowered inside.

Footage shows the jumbo slurping up congee, which is a type of savoury rice porridge meal, from bowls on the street side diner in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, on October 5.

The customers fled inside the shop when they saw it approaching and left hot food unattended, which the animal ate.

It finished the leftovers and even spilled an entire casserole of it onto the road, which it also feasted on.

Locals reported the incident to wildlife rangers, who monitor the movements of elephants in the region's sprawling woodlands.

As of 2023, there are an estimated 3,084-3,500 wild elephants in Thailand. The population has been increasing in recent years, but it is still a fraction of the estimated 300,000 wild elephants that lived in Thailand at the beginning of the 20th century. The main threats to wild elephants in Thailand are habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and conflict with humans.