A Thai woman amazed locals with her piercing blue eyes caused from recessive genes.

Footage shows Natthakan Fasai, 20, smiling with her striking sky-blue eyes in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand, on February 17.

She said she grew up with her friends thinking that she wore coloured contact lenses and had to prove they were real.

Natthakan, who has two Thai parents, said: ‘When my mother was pregnant with me, she liked to listen to international bands. Some of the singers had blue eyes.

'She loved everything Western, so it was a coinicidence when I was born with blue eyes.'

When Natthakan was born, she added that her eyes were dark blue, but the hues brightened as she grew older.

She said: ‘I used to be afraid of having eye contact with people. I felt like my eyes were very unusual. But now, I understand how special they are. I no longer feel like it's abnormal.'

Eye colour is determined by a gene called the OCA2 gene, which produces a protein involved in making the pigment melanin.

A person needs two copies of the recessive blue-eyed OCA2 variant to have blue eyes. Having just one copy of the blue allele results in brown eyes because the dominant brown allele overrides the recessive one.