This is the moment a tourist threatened a driver with a knife in a road rage row in Pattaya, Thailand.

Footage shows the male holidaymaker, believed to be Chinese, pointing a knife at another driver through the rolled-down window of his white Ford Everest while waiting at a traffic light on August 27.

He then sped away and was reportedly seen driving erratically across the road.

Motorcycle taxi rider Suwan Thajampee, 26, who witnessed the incident, said the knife-wielding driver appeared to be drunk.

He said: 'I thought they were just joking around, but I was shocked when he suddenly drew a knife and waved it around. The tourist might have been angry because the other driver blocked him while he was making a turn. I think he was speaking Chinese, but I couldn't understand him.'

Locals said the area was notorious for evening traffic jams, which may also have angered the tourist.

Former fishing village Pattaya became popular with American troops on 'rest and relaxation' breaks in the 1960s when the U.S. military had bases in Thailand. In the ensuing years, the coastal resort spawned into a semi-barbarous sex-tourism hellscape.

Embarrassed officials have made progress in gentrifying the region with family tourism projects but a ravenous nightlife industry and corrupt police have hampered their efforts, with undesirables from all nations still attracted to the seedy city.