‘Chips saved my life!’ Moment elephant SMASHES terrified Aussie tourists’ car window in search of food before quick-thinking dad throws fries to distract it and enable their escape
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In a shocking moment, a huge elephant attacked an Australian family’s van and smashed the window while looking for food during their holiday in Sri Lanka.
The video shows the elephant, named Nitra, emerging from the trees in Yala National Park in south-eastern Sri Lanka and heading straight towards the van hired by Kasun Basnayake and his family.
The driver desperately tries to turn the car away from Nitra, but she uses her fang to break the van’s window and then uses the trunk to search the inside of the car for food.
But the quick-witted Kasun threw his son’s chips out the window to distract the elephant. And indeed, the hungry elephant quickly moves away from the car to feast on food.
The driver quickly shifts into first gear and speeds away from the elephant, but not before it slams head first into the side of the van.
The video shows a female elephant emerging from the trees in Yala National Park in south-eastern Sri Lanka and heading towards a van hired by Kasun Basnayake and his family.
The driver desperately tries to turn the car away from Nitra, but she uses her fang to break the van’s window and then uses the trunk to search the inside of the car for food.
Kasun, from Perth, Western Australia, told the BBC: “He started sniffing our legs for food and the driver told us to give him everything we had, so I fed him the rest of my son’s sandwich.”
“He told me to throw the rest out the window, which I did, and the driver managed to speed up.
“Those sandwiches and chips probably saved our lives.”
No one was injured in Monday’s incident on Culp Temple Road in Yala National Park.
The family was heading to the Sithulpauwa temple, popular among tourists, when they were attacked by an elephant.
The driver desperately tries to turn the car away from Nitra, but she uses her fang to break the van’s window and then uses the trunk to search the inside of the car for food.
But the quick-witted Kasun threw his son’s chips out the window to distract the elephant. And indeed, the hungry elephant quickly moves away from the car to feast on food.
The driver quickly shifts into first gear and speeds away from the elephant, but not before he slams head first into the side of the van.
The Kalp temple road is reported to be a key location that elephants use to attack wide-eyed tourists and steal their food.
Yala National Park has a protected area of almost 130,000 hectares of land, consisting of forests, grasslands and lagoons.
The park is home to animals such as elephants, leopards, sloths, jackals and crocodiles.