This is the terrifying moment a crazed driver chased pedestrians with live COBRAS then tried to set himself alight in rush hour traffic.

The middle-aged Western man in his 30s or 40s sparked chaos after parking his brand new black Mercedes in the middle of the road outside the busy Central World shopping mall which was hit by a deadly fire earlier this month.

Footage shows how he covered the car with pictures of the late Thai king and religious icons before sprinkling yellow flower petals on the car and on the ground.

Bizarrely, he then unravelled live cobras which he began bowing down to before waving a 12-inch long knife in the incident at 6.25pm local time (12:25pm GMT).

Crowds of terrified locals watched as he then doused petrol on himself, the car and the ground and threatened to set himself.

Frantic scenes followed as around a dozen brave policemen pounced on the man. He was dragged away into a police truck.

Onlooker Kittisak Wattana said: ‘’The man had an accent. He was not Thai, he was foreign. He was shouting about setting himself on fire.

''There were two snakes, two cobras I think, that he released.

‘’There was no reason for it. He had a knife and two of the policeman were injured when they arrested him.’’

The injured cops from the Lumpini District Police Station were treated at hospital for minor wounds while the attacker was detained in a police van.

He is currently being held in cells at the Lumpini District Police Station where police plan to interview him this evening.