Wild elephant rampages through Indian town – video

Footage has emerged of a wild elephant rampaging through a town in India's West Bengal.

Images show the animal, clearly in a state of distress, damaging buildings and panicking residents.

The incident occurred on Wednesday morning, as inhabitants of Siliguri awoke to find the elephant trampling through their town centre, knocking over fences and stopping traffic on the main highways.

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Locals quickly surrounded the animal, filming it on their smartphones and attempting to herd it away from their homes.

Police were unable to stop the elephant, despite their attempts to clear a path out of the town and back into the nearby Baikunthapur forest.

The seven-hour destruction spree eventually came to an end when forestry officials shot three rounds of tranquilisers into the elephant's body. A crane transported it back to a local animal rescue centre.

Of India's 29,000 wild elephants, 60 per cent live outside the country's designated national parks and interactions such as this one are becoming more common.

"Human encroachment and degradation of forests have led to increased encounters between people and elephants in West Bengal," says the Daily Telegraph.

Up to 300 people per year are killed by elephants, the paper adds, and villagers also frequently complain of their crops being trampled or eaten by elephants.

Last week, local media reported two people were trampled to death by elephants in separate incidents in West Bengal state.