VIDEO: monkeys lunge at child on beach, father leaps into the rescue

In order to protect his son from aggressive monkeys, an Australian father was forced to punch a monkey in the face after the primate lunged at his 1-year-old son on a beach in Thailand. The shocking scenes were caught on camera and shared online.

A travel influencer Riley Whitelum with his sons Lenny and Little Darwin, and his wife Elayana Carausu were at Monkey Beach on Ko Phi Phi Don Island. Darwin was enjoying the gorgeous beach when one of the primates suddenly leapt at him, and the group as a whole began searching through a bag containing the family’s possessions.

At that moment, the 38-year-old Riley rushed towards the animal in an attempt to scare it away from the belongings but it lunged forward, he punched it in the face and took his screaming child in his arms. They were fortunate to be able to get away as additional agitated monkeys charged at them.

The footage was posted on the couple’s YouTube channel ‘Sailing La Vagabonde’ on March 21. It has already crossed 784K views in just 2 days.

“I punched out two monkeys. They tried to attack Darwin. I’m not even joking,” Riley is heard telling his wife in the clip.

Riley said he felt bad for punching a monkey, but he had to protect his son from them. He also went on to reveal that he had been bitten by one of them during the attack.

After the incident, the couple visited the local town to get a rabies shot. It was reported that Riley passed out from the painful jab.

“I’ve never had a rabies shot so I need five, or more, in my wound. Then another five over the next 20 days,” he says in the video.

Riley and Elayana, who like travelling the world, said they didn’t do enough research before taking their children to the island.