A rampaging elephant blocked traffic and crushed a car roof while searching for food.

The jumbo emerged from the forest and stopped drivers who were passing through a forest road in Nakhon Nayok, Thailand.

Shocking footage shows the beast sniffing around a black Honda sedan. The bull then appeared to become frustrated as it failed to find anything to eat.

Terrified motorists watched as the animal rammed the roof rank then used its trunk to put a large dent in the roof.

Shocked driver Achira Sattporn, who was also held up by the leviathan, said: 'The elephant was so dangerous. We did not dare approach it. He seemed to be in an agitated mood, looking for snacks.'

Onlookers thought the elephant would leave after walking away for a moment, but it returned and continued to attack the car.

The creature then used its front limb to trample on the sedan and shake it down.

Park rangers tried to scare the animal away without success.

Despite the damaged car, no one was hurt, and the elephant returned to the forest on April 1.

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.