A Thai Airways flight sparked panic when it was seen dumping fuel over homes to make an emergency landing.

The Boeing 777 departed from Bangkok for Frankfurt, western Germany, before suffering a technical fault on Sunday afternoon.

Shocked residents in Samut Sakhon watched in horror as trails of jet fuel were sprayed across the sky above their homes at around 1 pm local time.

Footage shows the long white trails against the clear blue sky. Onlookers said the aircraft circled up to six times before returning to the airport.

Despite fuel being vaporised by the speed and altitude, pilots are advised to dump fuel above the sea. With the town next to the coast - and the landing approach to the airport from the sea - it is unclear why the plane did not release the fuel over the ocean.

Officials said the plane was forced to return for an emergency landing because the cover on the main landing gear did not close full.

The plane landed at 2:12 pm local time and underwent maintenance before departing again at 3:20 pm. Flight TG 922 then landed in Europe at 9:56 pm local time.