When a hungry wild elephant held a bus hostage: Watch viral video

A wild elephant in search of easy pickings can be seen holding on to a bus full of passengers in a tense video that has racked up more than 3 million views on YouTube in just over a day.

The video starts with the elephant out on a rather busy road in a wooded area holding out its trunk at passing cars and buses, looking maybe for a gift of coconuts or bananas.

Then a blue bus full of passengers approaches and stops, and the driver holds out a bunch of bananas which the gentle giant gobbles up in not more than a couple of seconds.


Then the unexpected happens: the elephant slides its trunk in through the window as if to grab something, breaking glass panes and sending the passengers into a tizzy.

The driver blares the horn and even puts his bus in a slow reverse to shake him off, but the pachyderm only keeps pace by walking sideways with its trunk still inside.

At this, people in a jeep who were filming the incident rev up their engine and charge at speed towards the elephant in a bid to scare it off, but the beast only moves back a step or two before going at the bus again.

By this time many of the panic-stricken passengers of the bus are already out on the road, and there are screams and the crunch of glass and metal heard from inside .

Finally, a bus coming in the opposite direction gets close to the elephant and keeps blaring the horn right in its ears, forcing it to pull out its trunk and back off into the trees.

Passengers who are out on the road then jostle to get back into the road, a girl falls down in the rush and excitement, the elephant returns and picks up a coconut that is lying on the road.

The video posted by YouTube channel Elephant Pass does not mention when and where it happened, but the destination board on the bus written in Tamil, English and Sinhala suggests it was going from Ilankaithurai to Muthur in Trincomalee district of Sri Lanka.

Many of the people in the comments section blamed the bus driver to feed the elephant for stopping to feed an elephant and risking the safety of his passengers.

Some suggested that drivers along the route stop feeding elephants. Others suggested the opposite. " I think vehicles passing that route should carry sufficient bananas and coconuts. The elephant seemed definitely hungry and looking for food," wrote a user.

And what about the passengers who rushed outside? " The people who got down were too exposed, but it's very difficult to judge in that situation, they were so helpless," said one of the comments.