Holidaymakers on a jungle getaway in southern India were left shaken after a wild elephant came thundering towards their safari jeep forcing a hair-raising escape.
The dramatic encounter unfolded on on Friday near the Bhadra right-bank canal in Lakkavalli, Karnataka.
A lone elephant suddenly lunged at the vehicle near the Bhadra Ranganatha Swamy temple.
Heart-stopping footage shows the massive animal barrelling toward the jeep as the driver frantically throws the vehicle into reverse.
Thanks to the driver's quick thinking, the tourists escaped without a scratch.
Wildlife specialists stressed that while incidents like this are uncommon, they underscore the untamed nature of India's protected sanctuaries.
Officials from Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary have since urged visitors to keep their distance from wild animals, avoid sudden movements and trust trained guides to handle tense situations.
It comes just months after the wold's loneliest elephant, who spent 13 years in isolation, died in an Indian zoo.
Shankar, the only African elephant at New Delhi's zoo, refused to eat and collapsed hours later in September, officials said.
The 29-year-old elephant had spent at least 13 years in solitary confinement.
Shankar was one of two African elephants brought to India in 1998 as a diplomatic gift from Zimbabwe to former Indian president Shankar Dayal Sharma.
But after his companion died in 2001, Shankar had endured a lonely existence.
An unnamed former zoo official told the BBC that Shankar was temporarily kept alongside Asian elephants, but said that they were 'aggressive towards eachother', resulting in Shankar being isolated.
The former official said Shankar used to be a playful elephant but claimed that his 'behaviour changed after the other African elephant died'
'Shankar never accepted any other elephant's company, neither did they accept Shankar's. He was left friendless'.