This is the shocking moment a transgender thug attacked a tourist with his high heels in Thailand.

The Thai ladyboy - a man who dresses as a woman - reportedly followed the backpacker to insult him in 'Sin City' Pattaya, in the early hours of March 22.

Footage shows the tall crossdresser, seen in the video wearing a cream-coloured dress and high heels, screaming at the male tourist believed to be around 45 years old. The backpacker was holding a shopping bag and appeared to be heading home after buying groceries.

Stunned onlookers watched as the ladyboy launched a brutal attack on the man, unleashing kick after kick before whacking him on the head with her shoes. He was left bleeding as the dress-wearing attacker walked away from the scene.

A local who witnessed the alleged assault said: 'Violence and theft often occur in the area. Most of the time, the perpetrators are often transgender sex workers trawling the streets for clients.

'Sometimes, their customers will back out when they find out that they are men, but the ladyboys will often manipulate the situation and claim that the tourist is molesting them in order to get compensation.

'This transgender woman is a local and is part of a gang that had previously assaulted a tourist in the middle of the night on March 17th.

'I would like to ask authorities to patrol this spot more often because tourists are frequently harassed here. I ask that they crack down on the violent prostitutes along Pattaya Beach who are ruining the image of Thailand.

The injured tourist reportedly sought help from Pattaya's Special Affairs Office and is believed to be receiving medical treatment for his head injury.

The incident comes after tourist police rounded up dozens of ladyboys on the tourist island of Phuket just days earlier.

Police Major General Sinlert Sukhum, the provincial police chief, had said: 'Provincial and tourist police officers were sent to Soi Bangla in Phuket on March 20 to apprehend individuals causing a negative tourism image.

'During the operation, officers arrested 37 transgender women whose nuisance behaviour constituted a crime.

'They were handed over to the inquiry officer of Patong Police Station for further legal action.'

On March 13, a gaggle of violent crossdressers pounded a holidaymaker into the ground outside a nightclub in Phuket.

On March 5, two male tourists were also beaten by ladyboys when they tried to defend a Thai woman being attacked by the transgender women 'for stealing their clients' on the same island.

On February 15, two ladyboy prostitutes shocked customers as they fought over a male foreign tourist at a pool hall in 'Sin City' Pattaya.

Shocking footage showed naked sex workers running into the street as the two groups hurled glasses and garden pots at each other over the garden wall. Inside the property, broken glass littered the floor and blood was splattered across the walls among empty bottles and cigarettes.

Former fishing village Pattaya became popular with American troops on 'rest and relaxation' breaks in the 1950s and 1960s when the U.S. military had bases in Thailand while fighting Communism in Vietnam. Rural families are said to have even dressed their sons as women to cash in on the gold rush.

The handful of bars in the coastal town quickly grew and it is now the world's biggest sex holiday destination, with round-the-clock prostitution and drugs - a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah rife with crime and debauchery.

Government chiefs have attempted to clean up the city but regular violence, depravity and claims of corruption continue to blight its reputation.