Elephant goes on rampage in Sri Lanka, injuring 17

Warning - video contains content that may offend some viewers.

More than a dozen people were injured in Sri Lanka when an elephant went on a rampage.

The incident happened during the Kotte Rajamaha Vihara temple pageant on Saturday night (local time)

The video shows the elephant walking down the road surrounded by what looks like festival-goers. Suddenly the animal is startled and begins to run erratically, trampling over people and throwing off a man riding on its back.

Seventeen people were injured, according to the Colombo Gazette.

The rampage follows more elephant-related controversy in Sri Lanka, after photos of an emaciated elephant surfaced at a festival last month.

The photos, posted by Save Elephant Foundation, showed a 70-year-old female reportedly made to walk "many kilometres" every night in Sri Lanka's Perahera Festival.

"No one sees her bony body or her weakened condition, because of her costume. No one sees the tears in her eyes, injured by the bright lights that decorate her mask, no one sees her difficulty to step as her legs are short shackled while she walks," the foundation said in a Facebook post.

The temple that cares for the elephant told UK publication Metro they "always care about the animals" and that a doctor had looked at the elephant.

Newshub.