This is the hilarious moment slapstick-esque security guards carrying tables down an escalator fell over each other as they became stuck at the bottom.

The staff members thought they were working smarter and not harder by transporting furniture down the moving staircase.

CCTV footage shows the bungling employees frantically trying to remove the table with legs wedged on the guard rails, panicking as more as their colleagues descended.

The other employee, reportedly the team's manager, appeared disoriented for a moment as the table created a bottleneck while the guard crawled under the table.

The other guards scrambled to climb the rails as the table blocked their way and heaved their own furniture onto the other escalator.

An onlooker said: 'The manager should be replaced.'

Scared customers were seen running up the escalator. No one was hurt and the mechanism was turned off shortly after the blunder in Shanghai, China, on January 25.