The Indian elephant smashing things on its way.

A wild elephant Wednesday went on a rampage in India’s eastern state of West Bengal, smashing at least 100 residential structures of people and cars in its way, besides forcing panic stricken people to run away for safety, locals said.

No one was injured or killed by the wild animal, who was later on tranquillized by wildlife officials and taken to the forest.

The incident took place in Siliguri town, about 566 km north of Kolkata city, the capital of West Bengal.

The rampaging elephant

Indian elephant: People gather to watch the elephants rumble across. All Photos by Xinhua

Video footage broadcast by television news channels showed the elephant running amok through streets trampling parked cars, motorbikes and structures. Huge crowds of people gathered to watch the wild animal on rampage from balconies and roof tops.

Officials told media the elephant had wandered from the nearest Baikunthapur forest.

“The elephant didn’t attacked the people instead it went on rampaging everything that came in its way,” an official said. “It seemed the animal was scared and trying to find its way to the forest back.”

Following the hours of disturbance, the men from forest department fired tranquillizer darts to control the wild animal.

“After shooting couple of tranquillizers, officials brought a crane to lift it into a truck and take it away from the town,” local resident Rishikesh Banerjee told Xinhua over telephone. “We were told it would be released back in the forest area.”

Unconfirmed reports put the number of damaged structures at 100. However, the number of damaged cars and motorbikes was not known immediately.