Eleven elephants have died after plunging from the top of a 200m waterfall in Thailand trying to save on of their young.

Five new bodies were discovered on Tuesday downstream of the Haew Narok Waterfall in the Khao Yai National Park in addition to the six found at the weekend, bringing the death toll to 11, including a three-year-old calf. Only two elephants in the herd are known to have survived the fall, wildlife officials said.

The elephants were trying to cross the river at the top of the cliff on Saturday when a strong current swept them over the edge of the waterfalls, officials at the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation said. The group died after trying to reach a calf who had already fallen from the cliff edge.

Officials sent small drones into the area to investigate because the terrain is too rough for hiking, Nattapong Sirichanam, governor of Nakhorn Nayok province adjacent to the mountains, said.

“We flew drones at a height of 15 metres above the ground as we can’t walk in to confirm the deaths,” Mr Nattapong said.

“We assume that there were 13 elephants in this herd and two of them survived.”

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“We are 100 per cent confident that two of them are alive as the officials saw them going out for food around the area of Haew Narok falls”, he continued.

Sompote Maneerat, spokesman for the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, said the death toll was the highest number of elephants to die in a single incident in Khao Yai.

Thailand has only about 3,500 to 3,700 wild elephants left nationwide, according to the department. The 2,000-kilometre-square Kao Yai National Park is believed to have around 300 wild elephants as well as other wildlife.

Now two major accidents have occurred there, Mr Nattapong said conservation officials are talking about building walkways over the falls or other solutions.

“We will try to find a way to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again,” he said.