A neighbour risked his life to rescue a toddler trapped in a well in northwestern China.

In dramatic CCTV footage, filmed in Xining City in Qinghai Province on April 22, a three-year-old boy can be seen dropping into a well as its cover suddenly tilts.

His auntie, with her own young child nearby, witnesses the incident and checks on the boy and then runs to ask for help from a man coming out of his car.

The brave man used a belt and some clothes to lever himself down into the deep well while his wife also helped.

Stills show the man inside the well with the boy.

It took around 40 minutes to get the boy out of the deep, septic-tank well.

The boy was not injured severely and the well cover has since been fixed.