Frenzied tourist tasered in dramatic scenes at Thailand hotel

A frenzied tourist has been tasered by police in dramatic scenes in a hotel room in Phuket, Thailand.

The dramatic moment Thai police tasered a tourist during a “rampage” in his Phuket hotel room has been captured on video.

Police were seen with batons and hiding behind a riot shield as they entered the room wary of a screaming man.

The frenzied man was eventually hit with a stun gun on the balcony, causing him to collapse.

Asia Pacific Press reported police had been called to the hotel on March 11 for an out-of-control guest, who was accused of stabbing a hotel housekeeper with a syringe while she was cleaning his room. This was not seen on the video.

While the footage is only a few minutes, Karon Police Captain ML Sanya Suksawat claimed “police spent an hour trying to talk to him, but were eventually forced to subdue him with a taser gun.”

“Later, officers from the Karon Municipality Rescue Center were called to provide first aid before taking him to calm down at Karon Police Station,” he said.

“We will look into the cause of his rampage, whether he was under the influence of narcotics or not, and contact the Iranian Embassy for further action.”

The man was later named as Iranian tourist Reza Farshi, 44.

Police used a stun gun on the hotel guest. Picture: Asia Pacific Press

He was identified as an Iranian tourist. Picture: Asia Pacific Press

Russia, China, India, Australia and the UK are Phuket’s top foreign visitor markets.

Passenger arrivals in 2024 reached 8.65 million, with credit given to government-led visa free travel initiatives.

Some angry locals claim the push for tourist dollars has attracted crowds of ‘low-quality’ visitors.

There are also fears that the island has become an enclave of criminal activity, with police unable to control street fights and more organised ruffians setting up rackets among local businesses.

Phuket officials said they are implementing tighter immigration controls and screening processes amid a wave of drug-related crimes and illegal activities on the island.

Holiday hotspots across the globe are desperately trying to find new ways to cope with a massive boom in tourism post-Covid and avoid the trend dubbed “overtourism”.

More and more popular destinations are introducing tourist taxes to develop better infrastructure.

One of Australia’s favourite destinations, Bali, introduced a $15 fee to enter the wildly popular holiday island last year. An official tourist dos and don’ts list was also released.

In more extreme cases, there are caps on the number of tourists allowed to visit because the huge crowds are doing more harm than good to communities.

Brett Mitchell, the Australian managing director for the Melbourne-born global company Intrepid Travel, described the impact mass tourism can have on local communities in an interview with news.com.au last year.

“When tourism is not done well it does lead to overtourism, and overtourism can have insidious effects on local communities,” he said.

“I think the biggest one is inflation. It really pushes up the price of rent, housing [and] basics like food. What that does is push people out of their local communities. People who have lived there for generations find themselves having to move and when you do that you lose your local heritage, your culture is destroyed a lot, big business moves in, and all of a sudden the beautiful part about travel, learning new cultures and the authenticity of meeting locals, all of that goes away.

“[There is also] pressure on local infrastructure and the environment. It becomes a pretty sh** experience for the traveller as well. It’s just not sustainable at the end of the day.”

More recently when speaking about Kyoto in Japan, he said he believes tour operators need to work with local councils, governments and communities to “help co-design what tourism looks like” for more responsible destination management.

“That I think is going to be the real next evolution,” he told news.com.au.

“If we can do that that will help with this concept of having sustainable tourism that’s fantastic for the traveller but also for good local communities and local government.”