Hungry elephant bails up tourist van in Sri Lanka

A hungry elephant has been filmed poking its head into other people's business after coming into contact with tourists in Sri Lanka.

The peckish pachyderm was strolling down a dirt road in Weerawila in southern Sri Lanka when it encountered a man and woman in a van being led on safari.

The footage, uploaded to YouTube yesterday, shows the tourists stunned into silence as the elephant presses itself up against the vehicle and uses its trunk to search around for nourishment.

They then roar with laughter after the driver floors it, obviously worried the elephant's search could turn nasty.

Local man Chandrika, who runs Weerawila Flamingo Safari Tours, said the elephant was just after a feed and wasn't being aggressive.

"He was just hungry, it's uncommon but not unheard of for an elephant to do get that close to tourists and behave like that," he said.