Three tourists were unhurt when an elephant flipped their car on the banks of the Sable Dam in the Kruger National Park on Thursday, the game reserve said.

The three occupants were on their way to the Letaba rest camp at the time, spokesman William Mabasa said.

"The guests were at the dam and there was an elephant drinking water on the other side. It decided to cross through the dam and walked to them and started attacking," Mabasa said.

It turned the car onto its roof. The elephant was distracted and went into the bushes when another car approached.

The tourists claimed the elephant had not shown any signs of agitation prior to the attack.

"Only one of them sustained minor injuries. They were all seen by a doctor and then they went back home."

The Kruger National Park said over 1.5 million people visited the game reserve each year and incidents of this sort were rare.

In December an elephant bull attacked a couple and trampled on their car near the park's Pretoriuskop section. The SA National Parks killed the elephant in January.

At the time, SANParks said the elephant was put down because it had shown the type of aggressive behaviour before and posed a threat to other tourists.