A monsoon storm struck a temple festival on Phuket island in Thailand.

Footage shows powerful winds sweeping away plastic chairs before the squall blew out a transformer and caused a blackout at the Stone Bridge Festival on June 22.

A visitor, Modx Fu, said: 'That was the first day of the temple festival called Sapan Hin or Stone Bridge festival. The storm struck the venue. It was quite scary. I feel sorry for the sellers whose stalls were damaged.'

The Thai Meteorological Department had forecasted widespread thunderstorms with isolated heavy rains across the eastern coast of southern Thailand on June 22.

Thailand and neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia are at the start of their annual monsoon rainy season which sees soaring temperatures followed by powerful rain storms. The rudimentary infrastructure often struggles with the deluge, leading to widespread flash floods.