This is the hilarious moment a drunk man was mistaken for a drowning victim in India.

The quarry worker sparked alarm when he was found lying motionless with only his face above the water in the Hanumakonda Lake in Telangana state on June 10 morning.

Terrified villagers notified the Kakatiya University Police, thinking the man had drowned in the water as he had been floating there for five hours.

Officers later arrived to retrieve the 'body'. However, when they tried to drag the man toward dry land, they were shocked when he suddenly jolted awake.

Footage shows the cops laughing as the shirtless intoxicated man splashed himself with water before explaining himself in slurred speech.

The unnamed man claimed he had been working long shifts at a granite quarry for the past ten days. He decided to relax and have a beer, then cooled off at the lake where he passed out from exhaustion.