[Scarlett.]

An elephant in a South African game reserve had sex with a car after mistaking it for another elephant, it has been revealed.

John Somer and Carina Lowers were driving a Volkswagen Passat through the Pilanesberg Game Reserve when Amarula - a five-ton bull elephant - approached the car and began mating with it, before flipping the vehicle over.

Somer told The Sun: "I never thought I would be killed by an elephant. When I turned the corner there was another vehicle in the road in front of us.

"The driver started reversing and stopped next to us. I'm Irish and he was speaking Afrikaans, but I could make out the word 'elephant'."

However, he was unable to reverse out of a ditch and so turned off the engine to avoid attracting the animal's attention.

"It really did seem to regard the car as a female elephant and was making advances on 'her'. When the bull started flipping the car over my life literally started flashing before my eyes. The car landed on its roof and we were lying inside it.

"Carina was very scared and wanted to crawl out but first I wanted to see where the elephant was. When we saw it was walking away we crawled out through the window."

The elephant then turned its attention to a nearby car, but driver Riaan van Wyk managed to get rid of him after a 15-minute chase.