Devotees perform an extreme fire walking ritual at a religious festival in Thailand.

The Taoist followers ran through the flames and across the burning coals at the Phuket Vegetarian Festival on Sunday night (October 25).

Some of the participants - who claim they were in trances - even slashed their tongues with knives and whipped their own backs with the sharp blades.

They believe that they are connected to God and they are absorbing the pain on behalf of their community - clearing away evil to welcome good luck.

The colourful self-flagellation ritual is part of the annual nine-day festival, which started this year on October 17 and finished on October 25.

Taoist followers across the country, many of them with Thai-Chinese ancestry, spend the time abstaining from meat, alcohol, intercourse and bad behaviour to worship the Nine Emperor Gods.

Vegetarian festivals are held every year across Thailand in the ninth lunar month but the most popular is in Phuket.

According to locals, the ritual started in the 19th century when a Chinese opera group visiting the island fell ill with a malaria epidemic.

The musical troop were doomed until they began worshipping the Nine Emperor Gods and cleansing their bodies by avoiding meat and practising self-flagellation. The bizarre practices have continued among believers.