A man was nearly crushed beneath a brick wall as it came falling while he knelt at its base amidst an ill-planned demolition project.

The close call was captured on surveillance footage outside a rural house in Zhoukou, in Henan, China, at 5:27 pm on February 29.

In the video, a man was seen tearing down the base of the courtyard wall during ongoing renovation works at the home.

Meanwhile, a woman stood nearby observing the demolition process.

The man worked his way through the exposed bricks with a wooden stick and at one point got down on his knees to finish it off more quickly.

He would have almost been crushed to death when the wall finally gave way and it collapsed towards him, had it not been for the woman who shouted at him to get away.

Alerted by her yelling, he jumped back on his feet and ran away just seconds before the wall crumbled onto the ground, averting a tragedy.