This is the dramatic moment a mother rescued her toddler after he became trapped inside a washing machine.

Footage shows the young boy, dressed in blue pyjamas, wedged tightly inside a laundry drum, crying in distress in Yunnan, China.

His mum used a butcher's knife to chop through the machine's exterior shell on December 21.

She was seen carefully shielding the child with her hand to protect him from debris as she smashed the structure open.

The woman repeatedly struck and pried at the plastic casing to create a large enough opening to pull her son to safety.

Moments later, she loosened the bolts on the spin drum with a screwdriver while the boy remained still.

The mother later said: 'It took us a while to get my son out, but thankfully, he was not hurt. It is just a machine and can be replaced at any time, so we had no issue with damaging it.'