Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte fuelled an extraordinary war of words with the United Nations by saying that their human rights team should be fed to crocodiles if they came to investigate his controversial war on drugs.

It followed a week in which he had called Agnes Callamard, UN Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, “undernourished” - while UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein remarked publicly that Mr Duterte needed to consult a psychiatrist.

His latest outburst was made as he addressed soldiers in the southern city of Zamboanga and attempted to justify his order for the police to ignore inspectors who wanted to investigate his war against drugs, which human rights groups allege has claimed over 12,000 lives.

“If these fools come here, are there crocodiles here? The ones that eat people? Throw those sons of b****** to them,” he said, according to the Philippine Star.

According to official statistics, about 4,000 Filipinos have been killed by the police in a nationwide crackdown on drugs dealers and users since Mr Duterte came to power in mid-2016. Thousands more have been executed on the streets by masked assassins.