A tourist sparked outrage when he was seen urinating from the back of a bus in Thailand.

Shocking footage shows the male backpacker relieving himself as he clung to the vehicle travelling through the island of Phuket last month.

Ignoring the only other passenger, he showered the tarmac with urine, but stopped and tucked his privates back into his shorts when he noticed a local motorcycle rider recording him.

Video of the disgusting incident surfaced this week and police immediately began searching for the holidaymaker seen in the footage.

Police Colonel Chalermchai Hernsawat, superintendent of the Patong Police Station, said the bus driver Prathan Boontiam was summoned to the police station on January 8 when the clip spread online.

The officer said: 'We were shown the video a few days ago. The man in the video is committing an offence by urinating in public. It is also indecent behaviour. We will identify the man, even if he has left the country.'

The bus driver Prathan told police the incident occurred around shortly after he had picked up the tourist from an alley in the island's red light district Soi Bangla area to take him to his hotel.

Prathan said: 'After a short while, the foreign man stood on the back of the truck and urinated. I made a detour to the Patong Police Station to report him, but he jumped off the bus and fled before I could take him there. I did my best to stop him but it was too late.'

Police said bus drivers were advised to warn misbehaving passengers or report them to the police in case of similar behaviour.