This is the bizarre moment a passenger prostrated himself in front of the king's portrait at an airport in Thailand.

The traveller Sahaschai Manpattanakan, 25, had flown in from Israel where he works to the Suvarnabhumi airport serving the capital Bangkok on August 14.

Upon arrival he allegedly began to act strangely, avoiding his family and refusing to be touched.

With confused employees and relatives following him, the disoriented young man then walked outside the building and bowed in worship in front of a royal portrait.

Officers later approached him calmly and convinced him to enter their van to be taken back home to Chiang Rai.

Sahaschai's mother said he had been working in Israel as a farmer for three months but had to return due to the conflict in the war-torn country.

She said: ‘He has been listening to loud bombs the whole time he was there and it made him stressed. He used to suffer from depression about a year back but he has already recovered.

‘Hearing the bombs must have damaged his mental well-being. He became unstable and frantic so his employer sent him back to Thailand to receive treatment and get better.'