'Gymnast' falls from Bangkok airport rafters

The "distressed" woman plunged from the rafters of Bangkok airport after hanging from steel wire by her toes. Photo / Newsflare

This is the moment a "distressed" tourist fell from the ceiling at Bangkok airport after performing gymnastics on steel wires for several hours.

The woman, who has not been identified but is described as being between 20 and 30 and European in appearance, landed on a crash mat and was taken to hospital where she is now recovering from her ordeal.

Police say she has refused to speak with them, but has an Olympics 2014 tattoo on her back, suggesting she may have been a competitor at the winter games, the Daily Mail reports.

The woman was originally found wandering down an expressway in central Bangkok before being taken to the tourist police at the city's airport.

Around 9am she somehow managed to give officers the slip, and was later found on an upper walkway before climbing over and on to some steel cables.

The "stressed" woman then spent the next two hours dangling from the wires 20m off the ground while emergency workers tried to speak with her, the Bangkok Post reports.

Rescuers also spent time positioning a crash mat underneath her in case she fell.

Video shows her hanging upside down with the wire behind her knees and her head in her hands.

She performed gymnastics on the wires for around two hours while emergency workers attempted to talk her down. Photo / Newsflare

As two emergency workers tied to harnesses reach out towards her she re-positions herself so she is clinging on only by her toes.

They back off, but after a few moments the woman lets herself go, colliding with another steel wire below which she hooks behind her elbow.

Both emergency workers move in to grab her, but she lets go again and this time plunges on to a crash mat.

Images posted by onlookers show she was later removed on a back board by paramedics.

Airport deputy director Kittipong Kittikachorn said the woman had accepted food and water but that she was still refusing to talk to anyone or reveal her identity and she had no documents on her.

Investigations are ongoing to try to find out who the woman is.