The world’s most terrifying tourist attraction has been shut down after frightening photos emerged of tourists balanced on a raft feeding meat - to crocodiles .
The young holidaymakers clambered aboard a make-shift cage kept afloat with plastic barrels just inches from the 10ft long killer reptiles.
They used flimsy canes to dangle lumps of beef over the jaws of the reptiles - which then leapt from the water to snatch their lunch.
Pictures taken by shocked motorcycle-taxi rider Jon Nok show hundreds of crocs circling the raft in a pond used for crocodile farming at the Elephant Kingdom in Chonburi, Thailand.
The images viral after he posted them on Twitter - sparking police and government officials to rush to the attraction.
Jon, 40, said: ‘I’ve bee a taxi driver for more than 20 years and never seen anything like this before.
‘It looks so dangerous I just had to take a picture. The tourists were all Chinese and some of them were scared, others were enjoying it.
‘People have been shocked to see that this happens.’
Social media users were stunned by the activity - with some saying it was cruel to tease the crocodiles by dangling food then pulling it away.
One said: ‘I’d hate to think what happened if the raft cracked. This is the riskiest tourist activity I’ve seen.’
Another added: ‘The poor crocodiles. People are laughing at them when they pull the food away It’s so cruel.’
Police, soldiers and government officials raced to to the crocodile farm last on Friday hours after pictures went viral.
It has since been closed down for 90 days while safety checks are carried out.
It is believed that the activity has been popular with Chinese tourists for a number of years but few local Thai residents - or the authorities - knew about it.
Uthen Youngprapakorn, owner of the tourist attraction which is part of a crocodile farm, said that he had offered the rides on the cage after growing demand from Chinese tourists.
He said: ‘We don’t put more than 15 people in a cage at a time. But they can hold more than this.
‘There have never been any problems and visitors are very happy. We always watch everything very closely.
‘We started out by only breeding crocodiles, but there was big demand from tourists to feed them, so we have been doing that a lot more.’
The attraction has more than 4,300 crocodiles and gharials spread out over two large ponds.
One pond is used for feeding the beasts from two metal cages while another is used only for breeding them.
Adisorn Promthep, director-general of the Fisheries Department, suspended the crocodile farming licence for 90 days for officials to check safety.
Thailand has the largest crocodile farming industry in the world. Designer brands source skins from the country for products including handbags and boots.
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