Police carry out show raids on Thai red light strip

Police raided bars in the notorious red light city Pattaya following dozens of cases of violence in recent months.

Dozens of cops scoured strips clubs in the Thai 'Sin City' on orders from Chonburi Governor Thawatchai Srithong on June 28.

Footage shows officers from Internal Security Operations Command and Pattaya City Police checking the IDs of staff and employees, and conducting random drug tests.

The directive came following a stabbing incident at the Tuk Tuk Club on June 8.

Bartender Kanthaphong Rungruangsomboon, 33, allegedly plunged a blade into club manager Peerasak Saeng-arun, 48, who tried to stop him from fighting a waiter.

Peerasak died from his wounds at the hospital, while Kanthapong fled the scene.

It sparked renewed attempts to clean up the nightlife destination.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin visited the city's Walking Street last month to monitor the tourism situation. He vowed to instruct the Tourism and Sports Ministry to plan measures to attract European tourists, amid fears they were being driven away by the city's seedy reputation.

Pattaya emerged as a nightlife destination in the 1960s when Thailand fought alongside the United States and provided them with land for eight military bases, allowing the massacre of North Vietnam and the deaths of two million civilians in the 1950s and 1960s.

In between killing missions, American GIs would have debauched ‘rest and relaxation' leave in the coastal enclave, leading to a raucous nightlife industry that has endured to this day.

Thailand received at least 1.7 billion dollars from the U.S. for its support and also profited from the nascent tourism industry serving more than 50,000 'yanks'. However, the country has never faced the same public criticism over the Vietnam War and has never apologised for its part in the atrocities.