Police were investigating today after half-naked tourist was found dead on a beach in Pattaya, Thailand.

Officers found the foreign man sprawled out on the sand of the Haad Tien Koh Larn beach resort in Chonburi province on March 2.

He was exposed from the waist down and was wearing two shirts on his upper body.

Next to the corpse were three pairs of men's underwear and a pair of shoes believed to be the tourist's belongings. The items were taken in as evidence.

Police said the man had likely been dead for about six to seven hours. They added he had a wound between his right eye and eyebrow, but have not identified a specific cause of death.

An investigation team has been dispatched to check CCTV footage and interview residents in the area. Meanwhile, the victim's body has been sent to the local forensics department for a post mortem examination to find the cause of death.

Police Colonel Kulchat Kulchai, superintendent of the Pattaya police, said: 'We need more time to find out more about the victim. At the moment, we cannot declare anything just yet.

'He has not been identified and we don't know what country he is from.'