This is the dramatic moment a man's car rolled downhill and crashed into a small pond after he forgot to pull the emergency brake when he parked it outside his house.

CCTV cameras captured the moment the driver, surnamed Chen, parked his white SUV in front of his home, located atop a small hill in Jinhua, in Zhejiang Province, eastern China, on the morning of December 3.

Seemingly distracted and in a rush to get inside, he quickly locked the car doors and walked away without realising he had forgotten to secure the handbrake.

Seconds later, the SUV started slowly rolling along the short drive and down the steep slope.

One frightened pedestrian escaped its path as it travelled downwards and out of control, before it crashed into a guardrail and fell into a nearby pond. Witnesses alerted police seemingly fearing there might have been someone inside the vehicle.

Fortunately, it was empty at the time of the incident and nobody was injured.

The Jinhua Traffic Police said the incident was as a warning to all drivers, reminding them to always make sure they apply the emergency brake before exiting the vehicle.