It appears the cries of a baby are too much to bear, even for a rampaging elephant.

A killer tusker elephant – a wild elephant with tusks – was on a fresh rampage through a West Bengal village on Monday when it stopped to carefully unearth a crying baby girl beneath the rubble of the house it had begun to demolish.

The 10-month-old's father, Dipak Mahato, told the Times of India that he and his wife were having dinner at about 8pm when they heard a "cracking sound" and then a huge crash from the bedroom.

"We ran over and were shocked to see the wall in pieces and a tusker standing over our baby," Mr Mahato said.

"She was crying and there were huge chunks of the wall lying all around and on the cot. The tusker started moving away but when our child started crying again, it returned and used its trunk to remove the debris."