This is the astonishing moment a furious Italian tourist yelled abuse at marine police when he was caught snorkelling in a protected area.

The holidaymaker and his wife were paddling in a coral conservation zone off the coast of Krabi, southern Thailand, when authorities on boats arrived to warn them on February 21.

Police explained the situation and politely asked the couple to board their speedboat to be taken back to the nearby beach. However, the defiant southern Mediterranean blew up at them instead of obeying orders to leave the area of natural beauty.

Shocking footage shows the hot-headed husband having a meltdown as officers dragged him and his wife onto the vessel. He was heard bellowing at police and telling them 'you are crazy'.

He then continued his tirade in Italian, gesturing wildly as he screamed that it was his 'last time in f***ing Thailand'.

Police transported the tourists back to the shallows.

Dual Scottish and Thai national Psi Scott, an advisor to the national parks in Thailand, said he was with officers from the Nopparat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park on patrol when the incident occurred.

He said: 'I was helping with patrols because there were a lot of violations in areas where we are trying to protect the coral.

'While we were in the middle of the sea, we came across these two foreigners, a couple about 700 metres away from the island, which is a closed coral conservation area.

'People were prohibited from swimming there to allow the bleached coral to recover from rising water temperatures. However, there were no tour guides to monitor the couple, and no one had told them that it was a closed area.

'They were swimming without anyone supervising them, which was risky because they were both elderly. I warned them, but they acted like they didn't understand and continued swimming.

'Our foreign volunteers blew their whistles and they finally listened when I warned them again that this place was closed. But they insisted on continuing to swim. So I asked our Thai officers to jump into the water to pressure them to get on the boat.

'They started yelling and cursing at us in Italian, saying, 'You're annoying, you're crazy'. After that, they lost their minds on the boat, saying that they didn't care about our rules. They claimed they paid good money for snorkelling so they should be able to do what they wanted. They didn't want to swim near the beach because they said it was for kids.'

Psi added that were only a handful of operators to supervise the numerous tourists and tour boats on the island. He said that conservationists are also tasked with monitor tourists for their own safety to avoid drownings in the notoriously unpredictable area of the ocean.

The incident is the latest involving holidaymakers clashing with locals. Cases have risen since the Thai government last year implemented a visa-free scheme to boost revenue following the barren pandemic years.

Angry locals claim the push for tourist dollars has attracted crowds of 'low-quality' visitors.