Italian school on Thailand trip forced to apologise for entire country after behaviour was so bad

A group of Italian students on a school trip to Thailand have apologised via their country's embassy after they insulted a woman who asked them to be quieter on a train.

They'd been travelling on a BTS metro train in Bangkok and being loud when a 25-year-old Thai woman asked them to lower their voices on public transport, telling them 'in Thailand, we don't scream'.

Rather than heeding the request to lower the volume they instead showed the woman the middle finger, called her a 'b***h' and told her 'sorry that we brought money to your country'.

The noise continued, and the teacher told the passenger to 'shut the f**k up' and said that the teenage students 'were just children'.

As you can imagine this display of rudeness has not been well received in Thailand, the video went viral on social media and now the students and teacher have issued an official apology on behalf of the country of Italy.

In a video where much of the sound was overtaken by the wind, they said: "We are making this video to apologise to the Thai people and Thai culture."

They said they would have issued a public apology sooner but they were 'worried and scared' as they said they 'wanted to ask forgiveness for our behaviour to Thai people and the country'.

Another said she was 'personally extremely sorry for what has happened', saying she knew 'money can't buy respect, and I'm really sorry for all the people offended, and having offended Thai cultures and Thai people'.

A student said he was 'very sorry' for being part of the incident, while another person in the apology video said they would be making sure they put more work into teaching respect for the culture of the country they were in as they 'humbly ask for your forgiveness'.

The backlash to the altercation on the train was significant, though the woman they insulted released an apology video featuring everyone involved where they said they were sorry.

The original footage of the incident has been taken off the internet as part of the attempt to accept the apology and move on.

Police fined five of the Italians involved 1,000 baht (£22.50) for insulting another person, while the person who showed the middle finger was given double that in a fine for also committing an indecent act in public.

They've agreed that there won't be any further legal action from this.

The Italian embassy itself also issued an official apology on behalf of the country.

They said in a statement: "The embassy of Italy in Bangkok expresses its deep regret and strongly condemns the inappropriate behaviour.

“The inappropriate behaviour of the group of under-age tourists does not in any way represent the Italian people.

“We’ll also try to teach our group again to strictly respect culture. Thank you for welcoming us and we kindly ask for your forgiveness.”