A group of hungry, wild monkeys were filmed as they surrounded a white SUV on the road and refused to let it through until they were given some food.

The bizarre scene was captured by a woman – surnamed Tan – as she travelled to a scenic spot in Ebian County, in south-western China’s Sichuan Province, to go sightseeing.

As she drove up the mountain to the Heizhugou Scenic Area on 3rd September, Tan said she noticed a few of the vehicles ahead were surrounded by a group of monkeys from all sides, almost as if they were forming a battle formation.

Phone footage shows a white SUV being barricaded by at least six macaques who sit in a circle around it, preventing it from moving.

Tan’s vehicle had to slowly pass through a gap on the side.

She told local media: “As soon as I rolled down the car window, the monkeys scared me.”

Tan said: “After buying tickets and entering the scenic area, we drove for a while before reaching the visitor centre, and the monkeys blocked the road on this stretch.

“Our car wasn’t completely surrounded, but we were also stopped by the monkeys.

“We had to slow down and wait for the monkeys in front to move before we could continue.”

Tan said that she had encountered many monkeys during her previous visits, but this was the first time she saw them behaving that way.

Fortunately, the vehicle she was in was not surrounded.

Tan said she did not know how the SUV managed to get out of the situation.

Tan suspects the macaques were trying to get food from the tourists, adding that she even saw one snatch toilet paper from a person’s hands at the visitor centre.

After the monkey found the toilet paper tasteless, it discarded it.

Heizhugou Scenic Area staff said although there are many monkeys in the scenic area, it is not very common for them to surround tourist vehicles like this.

Staff said their behaviour had been triggered by some tourists stopping to feed the monkeys.

After the incident, the staff rushed to the scene to drive away the monkeys.

They called on tourists not to feed the monkeys and to seek their help if they get surrounded.