This is the dramatic moment passengers screamed as a wild elephant attacked cars on a mountain road.

A family was driving along the motorway through Pala-U when they saw the tusker emerge from the forest and amble onto the asphalt in Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand.

Footage shows the pachyderm approaching a pickup truck with a man riding in the back on September 14.

The worried driver in front of the family reversed suddenly and accidentally collided with them, prompting the women to scream in fear.

The vehicle in front then managed to speed away, leaving the enraged elephant to turn its attention toward the family's car.

The father quickly reversed to avoid being attacked, before the animal eventually walked to the roadside and returned to the forest, allowing traffic to continue.

The filmer said: 'It was a scary encounter, though we are fine. Our car only had minor scratches on the front.'

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.