This is the astonishing moment residents found a live kitten hidden inside shelves they ordered online.

The family purchased the black wall rack from a website but they heard a faint meow coming from inside the box when it arrived at their home in Jiangxi, China, on December 7.

Footage shows them removing the tape from the container. They then tilted the package and carefully dropped it on the ground, revealing a white and orange moggy feline.

The seemingly confused furry feline could be seen looking around the room and at the unfamiliar faces in front of it.

Meanwhile, the baffled family laughed at what they discovered. They said that the cat did not sustain any injuries from what happened and they had adopted it as a family pet.

The filmer jokingly said: 'We couldn't believe that there was a freebie when we bought the shelves.

'We were thinking about how to ship it back because perhaps someone is looking for it.

'However, we took advice and realised it was probably a stray kitten so we decided to keep him as a pet.'