The Basnayake family was on the way to a temple in a national park when the creature attacked their van, smashing its hefty trunk through the driver’s side window.
“Can we get out? I’m scared,” one of the children says in the shocking video.
Out of the jungle and heading straight for its target, the elephant ransacked the vehicle, all for a snack.
“This thing was literally hiding in the bush, comes straight at the van,” Kasun Basnayake told 9News.
“He had those big tusks, so the tusks went through the driver’s window.”
The father-of-two had his camera at the ready having seen the elephant retreat into bushes moments before.
“I could see one of his tusks at the back of my driver [seat] and I was like, where’s the other tusk?” the southern suburbs man said.
The unseen tusk had punctured the driver’s side door.
With his six-year-old son beside him, Basnayake started throwing lunch leftovers the elephant’s way.
“The reason these things happen is people have been feeding these wild animals on the road,” he said.
“So, these animals, rather than trying to find food on their own, they can probably get an easy meal by just attacking a van.”
As the family sped off, the mammal took a parting shot, piercing two more holes in the side of the van.
Unlike their vehicle, the four passengers came away unharmed.
“It’s a memorable Sri Lankan holiday for us I would say,” the Wellard father laughed.
