Scary footage of a very angry elephant tossing a parked Skoda Fabia Combi as if it was a toy car has emerged from the Danish beach town of Karrebaeksminde.

It all happened during the bathing of the elephants in the sea, an annual tradition said to be popular with the locals.

While circus employees tried to guide the elephants back to their enclosure, the three massive animals became irritated, dangerously veering towards the crowd, which included children and mothers with babies.

Moments after, one of the circus workers seemingly hit one of the elephants on the trunk with a metal crowbar and the animal retaliated, first chasing the young man, then attacking a parked Skoda estate, tossing it in the air and stamping on its hood.

Eventually, the workers were able to calm down the animals. Luckily, no one was hurt.

Norwegian car salesman Oddmar Nygard described the incident to Barcroft TV:

“There were many cars and a lot of people in the street – the elephants probably got a bit stressed by this. The elephant clearly got irritated after being hit and started to push and lift the vehicle. The car owner tried to reach the car, but the circus staff stopped him – the windows got crushed and there was a lot of damage to the front.

I was there with my son, but I wasn’t scared when the situation escalated. When the elephant smashed the car I was totally calm, but my 12-year-old boy was hiding behind me. You could clearly see that people were scared, even the circus staff. The elephants had been taking a bath and were walking back to the circus area.I followed the elephants all the way from the beach. We went to the travelling circus at night and they seemed ok then.”

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