A wild elephant smashed a house wall to steal food in Thailand.

The hungry bull named Rodtang, 9, had torn down a chunk of wall as it ransacked the one-storey concrete home where sacks of rice were being stored in Buriram province.

Housewife Lampuan Jinpala, 56, said she had woken up at 3 am to find Rodtang lurking near the house on December 6.

The stunned woman called her husband Heung Jinpala, 58, to drive the elephant away.

Footage shows Heung throwing a firecracker near Rodtang hoping the explosion would scare off the jumbo.

The elephant had damaged aluminium windows as it rifled through the storage area, and had opened two sacks of rice grains before it escaped.

Heung said Rodtang was often seen in the village eating locals' cassava and other crops, adding it must have been living nearby after being driven away.

He said: 'My wife told me Rodtang was eating a sack of unmilled rice and tried to take it before being expelled. Wild elephants have been more visible in the village lately during the drought season. They appear near the community every day due to overpopulation, but this is the first time one has damaged a house.

'Therefore, I would like government agencies to come in and solve the problem of wild elephants in a concrete way. Because in the past, residents regularly encounter these wild elephants. It is feared that the villagers will be harmed. Since the beginning of the year, there have been four people here killed by wild elephants. There may be more if there is no action.'

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.