A wild elephant shocked cops on the night shift when it visited their station.

Footage shows the jumbo named Plai Duan ambling across the carpark of the Moosee Police Station in Nakhon Ratchasima, northeast Thailand, in the early hours of November 15.

Officers flashed lights at the tusker as they tried to keep it from entering the building at around 12:30 am local time.

Plai Duan later walked away into a nearby forest.

Police Corporal Wetchayan Srisathan said: 'We were surprised when the elephant appeared in the middle of the night. Luckily, it didnt' try to raid the station for food.'

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.