This is the heart-stopping moment a toddler fell into a water barrel before her mother heard her drowning and ran to help.

Three-year-old girl Fin Butda was playing with tubs of water and her pet dogs in her family's front yard in Kalasin, northeastern Thailand last Thursday (05/02) noon.

She wandered over to the large black bin to fill up her bowl, but as she reached down the shallow rainwater at the bottom she tumbled in.

CCTV footage shows the moment the youngster plunged into the water - unable to get out for almost 40 seconds.

Luckily, the girl's mother Ponnapha Butda, 23, saw her daughter's feet wriggling from the barrel and ran over to help.

The relieved mother said the accident happened during a brief moment that she walked over the street to talk with a neighbour.

She said: "Normally, I would always keep my eyes on my daughter but that day I remember seeing her playing with our dogs so I thought she would be OK. Then I turned away to talk to a neighbour.

"But when I turned back to look what she was doing, I saw her feet wriggling from the barrel. I ran to help her because she was drowning in the water.''

Ponnapha added that they were lucky that the water level in the barrel was low due to a recent lack of rain otherwise her daughter could have drowned.

She said: "Fortunately, the barrel was not far away from me and the water level was quite low. If it had been deeper it might have been much worse.''