A motorist was driven off by an angry elephant mum while she helped her young calf cross a road in southern China.

The two-metre tall tusker was caught in the car’s headlights as it turned and began to charge the car.

Dashcam footage shows the driver – named as Mr Su, 48 – getting too close to the elephant as she tries to save her baby.

As his family urge him to flee, Mr Su is seen dipping his headlights and reversing rapidly to get out of the elephant’s way.

But it is only when his lights catch a tiny elephant calf struggling to get out of a roadside ditch that the reason for its mum’s anger is revealed.

Mr Su – from Guangdong Province – told local media he and his family were travelling to his hometown in Hunan Province by car on 8th January.

Afterwards, Mr Su posted a video of the scary encounter on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

But many netizens left messages accusing him of frightening the elephants.

Mr Su humbly accepted the criticism and admitted that he did not handle it properly.

After experiencing this incident, Mr Su said he was terrified and thankful.

He said: “I have no experience with wild elephants, I thought they were as docile as the elephants in the zoo.

“I did not listen to the dissuasion of my family and continued to drive forwards to watch the mother elephant that was eager to protect her baby.

“It suddenly attacked my car, and it was less than two metres away from my car!

“I quickly turned off the high beams and stepped on the gas pedal to back out.”

Mr Su added: “At that time, the mother elephant was on the right side of the road, using her trunk to pull the calf out of the ditch.

“I was going to turn to the left, and I didn’t even consider that it would attack us.

“Maybe it was the high beams that disturbed it.”