GoPro footage shows the action on Khaosan Road as revellers take part in the annual Songkran Buddhist festival.

Tourists joined locals on the bustling backpacker street for the colorful ritual of wearing floral shirts while taking part in mass water fights.

Women also smear white paint on their faces while many strip to their bikinis and men take off their tops, wearing only swimming shorts.

Devotees celebrate the religious event every year from April 13 to April 15. It sees the country's businesses close down while inhabitants splash each other with water to bring prosperity for the coming year.

It's also a way to cool off during the hottest month of the year when temperatures reach 40 degrees Celsius.

However, the once-sedate festival has spawned into an alcohol-fuelled orgy of round-the-clock water fights across the country's major cities, with hundreds of thousands of tourists joining in the chaos.

Ministers have urged locals not to drink and drive while officials in Bangkok have designated different areas of the city according to the intensity of the activities.