This harrowing incident occurred when two couples from the UK and US narrowly escaped a deadly encounter with an elephant that overturned their safari canoes and hit one of the women with its trunk.

They were being poled ‘gondola style’ through the shallow waters of the Okavango Delta, Botswana, on Saturday. 

The guides had unknowingly brought the tourists dangerously close to a mother elephant and her two calves, resulting in a protective male elephant charging at them through the shallow waters and reeds in an aggressive display.

The tense footage captures the guides desperately using their poles to reverse as the trumpeting elephant rapidly closes in, utilizing its trunk and tusks to overturn both canoes.

The four tourists were tipped into the crocodile-laden waters of the Delta while their guides seemingly abandoned them, fleeing to the safety of the riverbank.

The elephant at first appears to have broken off the charge, but a second video shows it returning to attack one of the female tourists.

It rams its victim painfully with its trunk from behind, missing her with both tusks, but knocks her underwater.

The woman survived likely due to the elephant losing track of her under the cloudy water, abandoning its attempt to trample her after about 10 seconds.

Once the elephant’s herd safely moved past the frightened tourists, the bull elephant appeared satisfied with his protective action and returned to the herd, leaving the woman submerged.

She manages to get to her knees and take desperate breaths of air before standing up as her husband wades to her and grabs her hand, and guides her to the safety of the bank.

A former South African game ranger who was shown the videos said: ‘They had a very lucky escape indeed because all four could just have easily been killed by that angry bull.

‘The woman was lucky not have been gored, but if it had held her down for another few seconds, it would probably have drowned her, so she can praise the Lord he didn’t.

‘There are thousands of these dug-out traditional Makoro canoes on the Delta, poling tourists through the reeds to view elephants, hippo, birds, buck and crocodiles.

‘This bull attacked because it was protecting its young, and it seems the guides misjudged how close they could take the tourists safely and made a potentially fatal mistake.

‘There could well have been the need for four body bags if Lady Luck had not favoured them. It will certainly give them a story to tell found the fire for many years to come.’

Kakwele Sinyina said: ‘Yo! If the elephant did not get them, there are many crocodiles and big hippos there that could have killed them, so they had someone looking over them’.

The elephant attack happened on World Tourism Day on Saturday.

Three companies that run Makoro tourist canoes on the Delta would not comment on who ran the trip, but one receptionist said: ‘It was a group made up of British and American visitors.

‘There was a lot of expensive camera equipment and phones lost or damaged, but it is a blessing nobody was badly hurt, but wild animals can be very unpredictable’ she said.

In July, a boatload of British tourists also got much more than they bargained for on a Delta safari when their boat skipper took their craft in too close to a female with her calf.

The 5-ton enraged female attacked whilst trumpeting her anger, and the boat’s engine appears to cut out as it quickly closes the gap and uses its tusks to try and flip it.

The aluminium flat-bottomed boat is lifted up skywards, throwing tourists off their seats as it almost turns the boat over, but her tusks lose their grip on the hull and slip off.

Once the female feels the threat is over, she ends the charge and returns to her calf. There are thousands of elephants in the Delta, which helps attract two million tourists a year.

The Okavango Delta is one of Prince Harry’s favourite places in the world.

He took his first serious girlfriend, Chelsey Davy who he dated from 2004 to 2011, on a ‘love boat’ romantic cruise there after returning from a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2008.

Harry also took his wife, Meghan Markle a romantic break to the Delta in the early days of their relationship, and on a later birthday treat to enjoy the wildlife in the Botswana wilds

Male elephants can grow up to 13 feet tall at the shoulder and run at up to 25mph, and there are 415,000 leading to their status as endangered. They kill 500 people a year.

In July, two female tourists from the UK and New Zealand were charged and killed by a protective elephant while on a walking safari in a national park in Zambia.

The victims, whom he named as Easton Taylor, 68, from the UK and Alison Taylor, 67, from New Zealand, were attacked by a female elephant that was with a calf.

Safari guides who were with the group attempted to stop the elephant from charging at the women by firing shots at it, and wounded i,t but could not stop the attack.

It happened at the South Luangwa National Park in eastern Zambia, about 370 miles from the capital, Lusaka, and both women were pronounced dead at the scene.