Bizarre footage has emerged from China of a man smashing up a police car in an effort to deliberately get himself arrested.

The CCTV footage, captured in Shanghai last Friday, shows him using a brick to smash the police car's windows right outside the police station - predictably leading to his arrest.

According to local reports this wasn't even the first time the man, named as Mr Cai, had done similar. He's been arrested and punished three times since 2014 for criminal damage to police vehicles.

According to local reports the man, despite the erratic behaviour, is said to be mentally fit to stand trial but simply decided to spend some time in jail to get away from some misfortunes in his life.