This is the horrifying moment a villager was trampled to death while trying to take a selfie with an elephant in India.

Witnesses said a group of visitors had gathered to watch a herd of jumbos resting by the roadside in West Bokaro, Jharkhand.

However, some men reportedly approached the animals too closely while taking photos, triggering an attack on holidaymaker Amit Rajwar, 33, as he tried to run away.

Dramatic footage shows locals sprinting through a field with the aggressive jumbo attacking Amit behind them, trumpeting its trunk on Tuesday around 4 pm.

One local said: 'It was really terrifying. We had no choice but to run. We could not save the man behind us. We could hear him shouting in pain.'

Later that night, the leathery beasts entered a residential area along Ara Kata Road Number 4. Residents recalled hearing loud trumpeting and rushing outside in fear.

During the chaos, two women, identified by local media as Parvati Devi, 40, and Savitri Devi, 45, were trampled to death.

Authorities added that another man, Amul Mahto, 35, was killed in a separate encounter linked to the movement of the herd, bringing the death toll to four.

In a similar incident, a herd of behemoths chased labourers taking selfies and trampled one to death in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, on October 24.

Srikant Ramchandra Satre and his colleagues had travelled from Navegaon to Gadchiroli for a cable-laying job. During their break, they visited the Mutnur forest areas of Abapur, where bull sightings had been reported.

Tragically, as a 23-year-old electrician tried to take a selfie with one of the monsters, a bull named CME3 charged at him and crushed him. His friends managed to escape.

The sub-continent has at least 30,000 wild elephants - more than any other country and approximately 60 per cent of the world's entire Asian elephant population.

Many more elephants are held in captivity in India. They are used for religious events and weddings.