Dozens visited a Thai hospital - where a British woman had been warded for a serious accident - to donate blood after news of her condition went viral.

Ms Lucy Hill, from the town of Bury in Manchester, was six days into her backpacking holiday when the moped she was riding on collided with a car in Chiang Mai on Saturday (Jan 9).

The 21-year-old broke her pelvis and suffered a brain haemorrhage. She suffered from anaemia after surgery at Rajavej Chiang Mai Hospital and had been in desperate need of rare "A Negative" (A-) or "O Negative" (O-) type blood.

With supplies of both blood types reportedly in short supply, Ms Hill's family and friends launched a campaign on social media to appeal for expatriates and travellers to help.

Both types of blood are relatively rare. About one in 16 people (an estimated 6.3 per cent of the world's population) have A- blood.

The campaign was a success, with strangers queueing up at the Maharaja Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital to donate blood from 6am on Monday morning, reported the Manchester Evening News.

British couple Linda Thornton Kirkpatrick and Sean Thornton, who were on holiday in Thailand, told the paper they had arrived in Chiang Mai on Sunday night.

They were "inspired" by Ms Hill's story and took a tuk tuk down to the hospital the next morning.

Ms Hill, a Leeds Beckett University graduate, has since received a transfusion and is in a "critical but stable" condition, her aunt told the BBC.

Facebook user Darren Burns, who claimed to be Ms Hill's best friend, posted a note thanking donors on the social media platform.

"Luce's is still in intensive care but has received the urgent blood transfusion she needed," he wrote.

According to the BBC, the original plea for help was posted by Ms Hill's friend and travel partner Lauren Hall on travel website TripAdvisor.

The appeal was shared more than 40,000 times within the first six hours.