A stubborn American tourist sparked concern after falling asleep next to a busy road in Thailand.

The intoxicated holidaymaker was found sprawled next to the Jomtien Sai 2 Road in the notorious party town of Pattaya on March 26.

Rescue volunteers rushed to the scene near the entrance of a hotel after receiving a report at 11:36 pm. They found that several Good Samaritans had already dragged the man away from the edge of the pavement to keep him from being run over by passing vehicles.

When asked for details, the dozy tourist simply slurred that he was from America before promptly going back to sleep.

The crew shook him awake and offered to escort him to his hotel, but he refused and told them to stop disturbing his rest. He also complained that the loud cars passing by were disrupting his sleep.

Rescue workers spent half an hour coaxing him to leave. He only did so when the frustrated volunteers finally called the police.

Footage shows the groggy tourist reluctantly standing up and shuffling away from the scene to return to his accommodation.

O, the security guard of a nearby hotel, said: 'I saw the man staggering and clinging on the gate, but I didn't pay him any attention. I assumed he was just another drunk tourist.

'But a few moments later, there were people gathering on the side of the road near him. It turned out he had fallen asleep there. Someone called the rescue team to help him.'

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.