Six baby elephants have been rescued from a giant mud pit in Thailand after they became trapped.
Rangers were patrolling the Thap Lan National Park in Nakhon Ratchasima province, where the elephants live, when they came across the helpless animals on Wednesday afternoon (local time).
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"We believe they were stuck there for at least two days because after they got out their legs were weak," says the head of the park, Prawatsart Chantep.
He says a group of elephants believed to be the parents of the infants was circling the area, waiting anxiously for their calves to return.
The sides of the hole were too deep and slippery for the babies to escape so the rescuers spent five hours digging a path for them to climb out.
"Our team arrived with hoes (on Thursday morning)... and we began to dig around the rim (of the mud pit) to make it less steep," one of them said.
Video taken by the rangers shows the baby elephants clambering out one by one to safety and returning to the forest.
As they escape the rangers cheer "Go, children, go!"
It's uncertain how they managed to become trapped in the mud pit but it's hoped they won't make the same mistake twice.
Newshub.
