This is the heart-stopping moment a wild elephant nearly rammed a motorcycle rider in Thailand.

The jumbo charged through a village after being spooked by stray dogs in Chanthaburi province on February 22.

It thundered through a durian garden to flee but was further spooked by an oncoming motorcycle.

Footage shows the elephant trumpeting its trunk as it nearly crashed into the two-wheeler. It then ran past the driver and disappeared into a forest.

Onlooker Usa Chuenpirom said the elephant was part of a herd that normally emerged from a nearby forest every day.

She said: 'On the morning of the incident, I heard a loud noise from the elephant. I looked outside and saw it running away from the dogs.

'However, it walked onto the road and was scared by a motorcycle rider. The driver parked in front of my store because he was so shocked by the encounter.'

Local council official Santi Chuenpirom said the elephant did not appear aggressive and had likely been separated from its herd.

He said: 'It might have been spooked by the motorcycle rider and tried to hit him with its tusks in self-defence. Fortunately, the rider was not hurt.

'I urge the local government officials to address this problem swiftly. They keep holding meetings about this issue but nothing has been fixed. They shouldn't wait for someone to die from an elephant attack before acting.'

Thailand has up to 3,500 elephants in the wild. The population has been increasing in recent years, but it is still a fraction of the estimated 300,000 wild elephants that lived in the country 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.