A wild elephant caused chaos when it wandered into a temple during a funeral in Thailand.

The jumbo named Plai Duan sent mourners fleeing when it gatecrashed the solemn religious service in Nakhon Ratchasima province.

Footage shows the tusker ambling through the temple grounds in search of food, disrupting the funeral on the evening of January 16.

Locals kept their distance as the hungry Plai Duan walked around the compound. Funeral organisers and village officials later drove the elephant away from the temple by making noise.

No injuries were reported as Plai Duan left the compound without showing aggressive behaviour.

Phra Atikarn Kampanat Sukhethito, chairman of the Khao Yai Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Group, said villagers were facing increasing threats as wild elephants wander farther from the Khao Yai National Park to forage.

He said: 'Elephants are no longer afraid of people or cars, which poses a risk to humans. Wild elephants from Khao Yai can forage as far as Thanarat Road, often entering villages, hotels, and resorts at night to search for food and water, scavenging fruit trees and rubbish bins.'

In one recent incident, he said an elephant was injured when it was struck by a car while crossing a road.

He added that the jungle behemoths also destroy villagers' crops like sugarcane and corn during the farming season.

Governor Anuphong Suksomnit had earlier held a meeting with relevant organisations on January 5 to address the issue.

He said a special committee would be formed, composed of representatives at the provincial, district, sub-district, and village levels. Representatives from the private sector, conservation groups, and affected residents would also be included in discussions, the governor said.

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.