Six elephants have died after falling down an infamously dangerous waterfall while attempting to a save a baby elephant in Thailand.

Workers heard elephant calls from Samor Poon creek near Haew Narok waterfall – which has been nicknamed Ravine of Hell – in Khao Yai National Park in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The park officials found an elephant calf who was around three-years-old drowned in the waterfall and two male elephants standing directly above on the crag’s edge. The bodies of the five other drowned elephants were found close by.

Edwin Wiek, who set up Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, said one of the surviving elephants was the mother of the deceased baby elephant.

The leading animal rights campaigner, founder of Thailand’s first wildlife hospital, tweeted: “Currently rangers are looking for ways to rescue two surviving elephants, one of them the mother of a calf that drowned.”

He told the BBC that elephants were highly reliant on members of their herd and the two living elephants – which are now being closely supervised – could subsequently struggle to stay alive without them.

Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler Show all 14 1 /14 Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler Firefighter Pinyo Pukpinyo, known as a ‘snake wrangler’, poses for a photograph with pythons, some caught by him Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler A white-lipped pit viper at the fire station Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler Pinyo holds a python he caught Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler Pinyo holds a Bungarus fasciatus snake which he caught Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler The snake-catching equipment Pinyo uses on display at his fire station Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler Pinyo removes a plastic ring from a python he caught Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler Some of the snakes captured are often wounded. Pinyo treated this python with iodine after cutting off the ring Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler Pinyo ties a bag with a python inside after catching it Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler Twin sisters react as Pinyo shows them a small python he caught at their home Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler A snake lies in a cage at the fire station Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler A kukri snake Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler Pinyo comes face to face with a copperhead rat snake in the station Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler A snake looks on as Pinyo cleans a cage Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Thailand’s stealthy self-styled snake wrangler A woman holds a cobra snake which she caught at her home as the rescue team arrives Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun

Mr Wiek said: “It’s like losing half your family”.

Eight elephants also died after falling into the waterfall, which people have been barred from entering since the recent accident, in 1992.

Khao Yai is one of the few remaining spots in the southeast Asian country where wild elephants – Thailand’s national animal – are still alive. Around 300 wild elephants are thought to be living there.

The saga comes after six baby elephants who were trapped in a mud hole and split up from their parents were rescued in northeastern Thailand earlier in the year.

Elephants in Thailand are known for ransacking farmers’ land for food and have a particular penchant for sugar cane.