A hungry wild elephant sparked alarm when it raided a house to search for food.

The jumbo visited a residential area in Rayong while looking for a meal in the early hours of the morning on October 23.

Footage shows the tusker roaming through a home as volunteers tried to steer it back into the forest.

Locals believe the elephant was drawn by the smell of ripe fruit from the orchards.

Local fruit farmer Pattana Sathianket said: ‘The elephant often comes here to eat fruits like jackfruit, mangoes, bananas, and durians.

‘It causes trouble for local fruit farmers, but if you ask whether we're used to living with elephants, I'd say we've already accepted it.

‘We think of it as making merit by feeding the animals.

‘The elephant just comes to eat and then leaves.

‘Luckily, this one isn't aggressive and hasn't hurt anyone, but farmers still need to be careful because it comes quietly and many locals are out tapping rubber trees at night.'

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.