A Buddhist monk was arrested in Thailand over an alleged stash of child pornography on his phone.

Chayut, 60, was said to have downloaded a large collection of explicit material featuring minors to look at on his handset.

Police stormed his home in Samut Prakan, on the outskirts of Bangkok, following a tip-off from the United States' National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, which alerted Thai authorities that a Gmail user in the country was storing illegal images and videos.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Sunthorn Thongphongniam of the Metropolitan Police Bureau's Investigation Division collected the data from Alphabet, the owner of Google, and raided the temple on November 22.

Officers seized the monk's two smartphones, confirming that the devices contained child pornography.

The police chief said: ‘The suspect admitted that he downloaded child pornography to gratify his sexual needs. We handed him over to the inquiry officer of Samut Prakan Police Station for further legal action.'

Chayut was charged with 'possession of child pornography for the purpose of seeking sexual benefit for oneself or others', and 'possessing them for distribution or public display'.

An estimated 93.4 per cent of the Thai population is Buddhist, with some 45,000 temples across Thailand, according to the National Office of Buddhism.

However, public trust in the country's Buddhist order has eroded in recent years following a string of scandals involving sex, illegal drugs, and corruption.

In July, numerous top monks were implicated in a femme fatale seduction, where seductress Wirawan Emsawat allegedly seduced the religious leaders to gain access to temple donations. She was said to have stolen a staggering 385 million baht (9 million GBP), which she used to fund her gambling habit, before being arrested on July 15.