A Russian tourist sparked anger after spraying graffiti on a rock on a picturesque Thai beach.<br /><br />The vandal, Dmitrii Bragin, daubed the black eagle on the Nai Thon beach in Phuket, southern Thailand, earlier this month.<br /><br />Outraged passers-by noticed the graffiti and contacted the police. Park officials later arrived and cleaned away the vandalism yesterday (Feb 27).<br /><br />Asked for comment over Whatsapp today (Feb 28), Dmitrii apologised. He said: ''I would like to apologise. I did not think that Thais love stones so much. I usually choose quiet places so where it doesn't bother anyone. I didn’t have any thoughts of doing harm. On the contrary, I wanted to decorate this place, to make these stones more alive.<br /><br />''I'm in shock by the reaction to it. in more civilised and developed countries, there is no such reaction if you paint trains for example.''<br /><br />Angry local property manager, Elijah Roma, 39, filmed the beautiful sunset which he said was spoiled by the crass spray paint doodle.<br /><br />He said: ''This painting ruins the beautiful view of the beach. I'm disgusted that somebody could be so thoughtless to do this.''<br /><br />Officers identified Dmitrii Bragin through his Instagram page, dem51, where he documents his travels doing street art. One post appeared to show the vandalism on the beach.<br /><br />Tourist police received complaints about the graffiti and moved to question the Russian but immigration records showed that he had left Thailand on February 17.<br /><br />The national park chief Natthawat Nuisringam ordered the officers to erase and cleaned the rock and said it was an inappropriate way to express art.<br /><br />He said: "Having a talent is a good thing but using it to damage nature and other property is awful.<br /><br />“We received complaints about the graffiti and immediately went to inspect the area and found the painted rock, which is about eight kilometers to the south of Nai Thon beach.<br /><br />“We are responsible for the protection and maintenance of the National Park and this kind of act of vandalism will be punishable with a fine not exceeding 500 baht.”
