Kind shopkeepers helped a mother cat scoop her drowning kitten out of a drain.

The young lads were manning their food stall when they saw the feline crying on the edge of the sewer in Kedah, Malaysia on May 7.

When they checked, they saw she had been trying to fish her baby out of the dirty water, so they assisted her.

Footage shows the men using a shovel to reach the kitten from the edge of the drain. The mother stood nearby, crying, as if pleading with the vendors to save her child.

Onlooker Manman Wiengpak said: ‘The kitten was safe. It was cleaned up with a towel.'

The mother cat was waiting for the men to give her and the kitten some space before she took her baby.

Manman added: ‘I hope the stray mother and child is safe. The vendors give them leftover food.'