Shocking moment elephants fight each other before turning on the crowd and injuring dozens as they go on the rampage at Indian religious festival

This is the shocking moment two elephants fought each other before attacking the crowd and injuring dozens of worshipers at a religious festival in India.

Thousands of devotees had gathered at the Tharakkal Hindu temple for the Hindu procession in the southern Indian city of Thrissur in Kerala on Friday night.

But the older bull named Guruvayur Ravikrishnan became agitated and charged at another elephant, Puthuppally Arjunan.

The two elephants began fighting before charging into the gathered crowd.

Mahout Sreekumar, 53, narrowly escaped three attempts by the animal to attack him. He was injured and shifted to a private hospital in Koorkenchery.

The video shows one of the elephants attacking the other as they interlock their tusks and have a bit of a fight.

The crowd begins to flee the incident as others intervene to try to control the commotion.

The elephants continue to kick around the procession as the people flee.

Authorities said dozens of attendees were injured when they tried to flee, but fell when the elephants charged toward them.

The offending elephants were captured about a half-mile from the event, officials said. The couple was subdued and secured.

Authorities are now investigating the cause of the incident.

The subcontinent has at least 30,000 wild elephants, more than any other country and about 60 percent of the entire world’s Asian elephant population.

In India there are many more elephants in captivity.

They are used for religious events and weddings.