A pensioner was found alive after going missing in a jungle in Thailand for four days.

Toi Chapthong, 86, had walked into the woods in Kanchanaburi province on December 21 afternoon to look for a tree to chop to make an axe handle. However, he never emerged from the forest.

His frantic family, fearing the elderly man might have wandered into the deep jungle, filed a report with authorities to search for the missing grandfather-of-six.

Kanchanaburi governor Thosaphol Chaikomin ordered a contingent of villagers, search dog units, border police, and forest officers to scour the area for the lost senior citizen.

The search went on for four days until December 24, when a villager named Saifon Kramkeaw finally sighted Toi trudging among the trees.

He said: 'I walked into the forest because I was looking for wood. But then I couldn't remember the way back. I don't have a phone.

'My family was worried about me. Now they're keeping me at home and say I can't go out alone again.

'I am thankful to the rescue teams who found me. But I think I would have been fine. I'm sorry they went through all that trouble to look for me.'

Officials rushed the octogenarian to the hospital for a check-up. Doctors said he was miraculously healthy, showing no signs of exhaustion or injury.

Toi said he had survived by drinking water from a stream. He had also eaten mushrooms, which he recognised as being able.