Elephants lend weight to flood relief effort in northern Thailand

Thai relief workers brought in some serious muscle on Sunday to help them reach residents cut off by severe flooding in the north of the country.

Two elephants helped support a team of volunteers to reach a community in Saraphi district, about 20 kilometres outside the city of Chiang Mai.

The towering beasts strode seemingly untroubled through water levels that were waist-deep for humans.

The floods were caused by heavy monsoon rainfall causing the River Ping, that runs through Chiang Mai, to overflow its banks.