Hungry elephants were caught on CCTV raiding a home while looking for food in Thailand.

Footage shows the pachyderms visiting a farmer's house in the middle of a banana plantation in Chachoengsao province on May 19.

The jumbos tucked into baskets of sweet ripe mangoes set to be delivered to markets. Their appetites not sated, the ravenous creatures then turned their attention to the unmilled rice being dried out in the yard before leaving.

Frustrated villager Thawat said the elephants and their calves had been visiting his home to look for food since May 15.

He said: 'It wasn't too serious at first because the elephants couldn't eat the unripe mangoes we had collected. However, on May 18 and 19, they came in groups to devour the fruits that had already been sorted into baskets. I was going to deliver the mangoes to my customers.

'My workers and I could only make loud noises to try and scare them off, but the damage had already been done.'

Thawat added that the elephants had torn down the metal fence of the rice granary. When they failed to enter the building, they then ate the unmilled rice left to dry out in the open.

He said: 'What I am most afraid of is that the elephants might hurt my family. They have been coming here every day. I want the government to address this issue. Send help before lives and property are put at risk.'

Elephants are known for their voracious appetite. The World Wildlife Federation (WWF) found need to eat up to 150kg of food per day - the equivalent of 375 tins of baked beans

Conservationists in Thailand say that wild elephants - up to 3,500 of them - have even developed a taste for human food and prefer to rummage through homes and vehicles for snacks, instead of the bland leaves they find in the forest.