Moment elephant charges at family’s van and smashes through window searching for food

‘Those sandwiches and chips probably saved our lives,’ says Kasun Basnayake, who was travelling with his family

A family vacationing in Sri Lanka had a close encounter with a wild elephant which ransacked their vehicle in search of food.

The incident occured while a van with tourists was passing through the Yala National Park in southeast of the country, located about 300km from Colombo.

The video, now being widely circulated on social media, showed the animal emerging from behind the trees and smashing through the van’s window.

The tusker then searched for food through the driver’s side of the seat and pulled out a paper bag. It got back in again, sniffing for more food.

One of the tourists in the van could be seen passing on their packet of chips to the elephant as the driver frantically tried to escape.

“It started sniffing around our feet for food and the driver told us to give it anything we had so I fed it my son’s leftover sandwich,” said Kasun Basnayake, an Australian, who was travelling to the national park with his family.

"He told me to throw the rest out the window so I did and the driver then managed to speed off... Those sandwiches and chips probably saved our lives,” Mr Basnayake told the BBC.

No casualties were reported in the incident.