A herd of 15 wild elephants was approaching the city of Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan province, on Wednesday, defying attempts to redirect them after a journey of several hundred kilometres from forests to the south.

The group of Asian elephants, which includes three calves, originally lived in a nature reserve, according to the official Xinhua, and has trekked for nearly 500km along highways and through fields of crops over the past months.