Police arrested Burmese and Korean tourists for allegedly working illegally at a hair salon in Thailand.

Immigration Bureau officers raided the popular salon along Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok following complaints that the tourists were employed there as hairdressers - an occupation reserved for Thai natives.

Police barged into the building and found the suspects tending to several Thai and foreign customers on the second floor on January 14. They arrested the group after inspecting their personal documents.

The tourists were identified as Korean men Lee, 25, and Kim, 30, Korean women Jiyeon, 25, and Ji Hye, 24, and a Burmese woman Thin Thin, 33.

Police Major General Prasart Khemaprasit, commander of Immigration Division 1, said: 'All four South Koreans entered the Kingdom of Thailand on a 90-day tourist visa exemption, and are therefore not allowed to work. The other Myanmar national had a work permit, but hairdressing is a job for Thais only.

'Violators may be fined between 5,000 and 50,000 baht and they will also be placed on a blacklist and deported out of the country.'

The tourists were taken to the Khlong Tan Police Station for legal action.

Under Thailand's Foreign Employment Act, tourists are banned from working in dozens of occupations including tour guiding, labour work, agriculture, and hairdressing.

Violators may be fined 5,000 to 50,000 THB and may face deportation to their home country. They will also be banned from seeking a Thai work permit for two years.