Bangkok - A Thai man drove his passenger car into the Chao Phrya River in an apparent suicide, media reports said Thursday.

Sakda Pholfarang, 41, a single male with no regular employment, on Wednesday morning drove his Toyota Vios into the Chao Phrya river off a pier outside a Buddhist temple in Nonthaburi, a province neighbouring Bangkok.

When bystanders dove in to the river to save him, Sakda shouted at them to stay away, rolled up his windows and sank to the bottom.

Sakda's brother Phichai Pholfarang, 37, expressed surprise over the vehicular suicide, saying his brother may have been suffering stress.

The Chao Phrya, or River of Kings, flows from northern Thailand past Bangkok, the capital, emptying in to the Gulf of Thailand. (dpa)