Ravenous wild monkeys raided a pickup truck's cargo and caused a mess.

Footage shows the primates gathered all over the black vehicle, rummaging through plastic and boxes on its back outside Nong Hoy Buddhist temple in Ratchaburi province, Thailand.

The bags and boxes had been forced open as the animals searched their contents together.

Onlooker Manu Kuppom said: 'We went to tour a temple and saw the monkeys did that to the unattended truck. It was chaos.'

Thailand's growing population of primates has become a problem as the animals are known to damage property, such as cars and buildings. Unafraid of the consequences, they have also started stealing food from tourists and locals.

Many provincial governments in Thailand have been lobbying for the removal of crab-eating macaques from the country's list of protected wildlife. The legal protections have been hampering efforts to curb the pillaging simians' ballooning numbers.

Meanwhile, the Thai government is taking steps to manage the monkey population in the country, including creating sanctuaries, mass sterilisation programs, educating the public on how to handle the animals properly, and relocating them to more suitable habitats.