Tourists are flocking to an elephant camp to get a massage with a difference – from a three tonne elephant.

The spa treatment is being offered in Chang Mai, Thailand, where a number of Asian elephants – that can weigh anywhere from 2.25 to 5.5 tonnes – administer the massage using their trunk and feet.

But the unusual massage isn’t for the feint hearted – with one wrong move proving potentially deadly, reports the Caters News Agency.

Ian Maclean, from Hawaii, USA, captured two foreign tourists – one male and another female – lying on the ground with a towel over their midriff.

The giant Asian elephant is then led up to the tourists by a mahout, before ‘gently’ patting them to replicate the techniques used by masseurs.

Ian said: ‘During my travels around Asia I have seen many unusual animal massages including one with four Burmese pythons.

‘In places like Thailand entrepreneurial safari park owners see it as a way of making some extra money.

‘But this elephant one is a little more challenging purely thanks to the animals sheer size and power.

‘It looked quite dangerous and I saw many years ago the perils when an elephant stepped on a tourist’s leg. You can imagine what happened and the pain that person was in.

‘But if you are brave enough, it is one for the bucket list.’