Airport staff were caught on camera mistakenly taking a passenger's backpack full of cash in Thailand.

The bungling immigration official caused panic for the tourist after she grabbed the wrong bag stuffed with valuables on a trolley at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok on November 30.

The carry-on backpack's owner, Thongthai Prathum, had flown in from South Korea and had taken his eyes off of it while waiting for his check-in luggage at the bag carousel.

CCTV cameras from a stall selling sim cards showed the woman in a gold vest plucking the backpack which contained cash and other valuables worth 300,000 THB (8547 USD).

Thongthai frantically sought help from the tourist police, who coordinated with the airport's director to inspect the security footage.

The worker was later identified as a visa official escorting South Korean businessmen from the same flight. Thinking it was part of her group's luggage, she claimed she had whisked away Thongthai's backpack and boarded a van with the VIPs.

Officers managed to reach their party and informed them of the confusion, and the bag - with all of its contents still inside - was successfully returned on December 1 to a grateful Thongthai, who thanked the police for their swift action.

Thailand Elite visa representatives, who are part of a government program targeting wealthy foreigners, apologised and said no harm was intended in the incident. They added that they will be training staff to be more careful to avoid similar mistakes in the future.