This is the embarrassing moment two grown men were seen fighting over water pistols in Thailand.

The pair of middle-aged tourists came to blows during the infantile Thai water fight festival in Phuket on Saturday, April 13.

Onlookers said the scrap started when the holidaymakers in a black t-shirt squirted the shirtless man while he was riding a motorcycle.

He then parked up and squared off while swinging a water pistol at each other and exchanging punches. They were separated by a passerby moments later.

Civil Defense Volunteer Nopparat Yiwa, who was helping to organise the crowds at the time, said: 'Somebody went over and stopped them from fighting. Then a policeman came over and calmed them down.'

Officers said that no arrests were made and both men went their separate ways.

The Buddhist festival Songkran, which takes place every year from April 13 to April 15, marks the new calendar year in the ancient religion. It originated in India in the 6th century before being taken up by the Hindu-Buddhist Khmer Empire - the predecessor to modern-day Cambodia.

Followers splash each other with water to wash away the sins and bad luck of the past year. Traditionally, young relatives would pour water over the hands and feet of elders as a mark of respect.

However, the once-sedate ritual has been commercialised by the avaricious Thai tourism industry into juvenile water fights across the country's major cities, with hundreds of thousands of tourists joining in the chaos to cool off as temperatures reach 40 degrees Celsius in the hottest month of the year.

Ministers have urged locals not to drink and drive while officials in Bangkok have banned alcohol at its official festival venues due to the rise in road accidents during the period.

There are also criticisms that it wastes water at a time when prolonged droughts are causing peril across the world.