An alleged thief was caught on CCTV stealing hand sanitiser from a train station that was for passengers to use.

The man was seen squirting the alcohol-based gel into his hands after staff put it on a table at a subway station in Bangkok, Thailand, to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Footage shows how the apparent thief then walked away with the white tub of liquid under his arm.

Residents were outraged by the ''selfish and dangerous'' apparent theft from the Saphan Khwai BTS station.

''Without the gel for people to clean their hands, the virus could spread even more,'' wrote one outrage local.

Police are now searching for the man on suspicion of stealing the sanitiser gel.

Health officials in the country have been providing hand sanitiser in most public spaces and in some cases free face masks.

There have been 53 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus in Thailand and one death. However, coronavirus testing is not as commonplace compared with other countries, which may have lead to significantly lower figures.

Internationally there have been 119,243 coronavirus infections and 3,400 deaths as of March 11.