The dramatic video shows a little boy narrowly escaping drowning in a lake when a man jumps in to rescue him.

Footage shows the child, aged six, struggling to remain on the surface of Nianjia Lake at Hunan Martyrs Park in the city of Changsha, in Hunan, China, on January 13.

Terrified holidaymakers gathered on-site and tried to pull him back to the shore by handing him tree branches to hold onto, but failed in their attempts to rescue the boy.

However, just seconds later passerby Shi Zhicheng, 56, jumped into the water and grabbed the boy by the hand before he dragged him on land.

When asked about his act of bravery later, humble Shi told Chinese media: 'Saving people is a simple task, not worth mentioning.'

He added: 'The boy probably fell accidentally while playing in the water. When I saw him, he was several meters away from the shore.

'His little head submerged in the water. He kept struggling in the water. If I didn't jump in to save him, it would have been too late.'

Shi recalled how he threw his coat and mobile phone on the shore before he made the split-second decision to go after the boy.

He added: 'Before I went into the water, I didn't know how deep the water was, but I couldn't just ignore him.

'I know how to swim. I didn't think about anything at the time, and I didn't care about much. I just wanted to rescue the child as soon as possible.'