This is the touching moment a man dug a stream with his bare hands to save dying fish in a drought-hit riverbed.

Footage shows the kindhearted local, wearing a sunhat, gently removing a stranded school of fish floundering among the riverside rocks in Sichuan, China.

He can be seen crouching while clearing a path among the stones to guide the struggling freshwater species back into the Yangtze River on April 11.

Within seconds of finishing the trench, fish begin wriggling through the new escape route, darting into deeper, cooler water.

The rescuer recalled that the fish had become trapped when the water level suddenly dropped, leaving them floundering among the rocks after laying their eggs on the ground.