This is the amusing moment police rushed to investigate a suspected dead baby, only to discover it was a lifelike plastic doll.

Officers responded to a call about an alleged infant's corpse abandoned near an apartment in Thai resort town Pattaya on August 24.

They arrived at the scene at around 9 pm local time and found residents gathered around a fence where a black rubbish bag had been dumped. A child's hand was seen sticking out of the plastic bag.

But when rescuers opened it, they found a plastic doll instead, evoking relieved laughter from the locals.

Farid Khanthawithi, 33, the resident who called the police, said: 'Earlier that afternoon, I had seen a middle-aged foreign man wandering around the area several times, but didn't think anything of it.

'Then, in the early evening, he walked past again. When he left, I found a black bag abandoned by the fence. Upon closer inspection, I was shocked to see a child's arm protruding from the bag. I thought it was a real child's body, so I immediately called the authorities.'

Lieutenant Kittiphot Iampraphai said it was unclear if the doll had been dumped there as a prank.

He said: 'There was relief that the body was only a doll. But it is serious, because the incident caused a lot of panic and distress.

'We are still investigating to find where the item came from.'

Locals in Nonthaburi had a similar fright when they found what appeared to be two corpses in a crashed taxi, which later turned out to be Netflix props.

The 'dead bodies' were reported by Sornchai Khramchalaem, 42, who discovered the apparent wreckage as he was driving to work in the morning.

When police inspected the carnage, however, the bloodied bodies were found to be a mannequin dressed up as a ghoul for a film.

Tangkwa Saenset, 25, a freelance artist who makes props for TV series, dramas, and movies said she owned the car and mannequins, which were towed to the suburban street earlier that morning. Exhausted crew members had left it uncovered, not expecting it to terrify locals.