A young man and a lizard have become best friends after a strange encounter during a sleepless night.

Dinesh Lodhi from the city of Gwalior, in the Madhya Pradesh state in central India, said he was struggling to sleep when he suddenly felt something on his clothes.

Thinking it was a rat, he then quickly undressed, only to find the small reptile gazing at him. After failing to chase it away, the young labourer decided to adopt it.

Footage from January 9 shows Dines talking to the cameraman while the lizard stays attached to his red and black jacket sleeve.

Pointing out that he loves the reptile more than himself, he explained that when he first picked it up, the lizard bit him several times before it started to feel comfortable around him.

In the recording, Dinesh also explained that the two have become inseparable ever since their first encounter and that now their bromance is so strong, that he even takes the lizard to work.

He said: 'This is better than being friends with idiots who don't know anything better than to hang out with selfish people who constantly gossip.'