A dejected migrant worker whose life savings were chewed into thousands of tiny pieces by an army of mice has been handed a lifeline by a Shanghai bank.

Zhao Zhiyong had asked his wife to store around 7,200 yaun (£775) inside the pocket of a coat in his closet for safekeeping.

But he was said to be “shocked” when he returned to his Shanghai home of 10 years to discover that a mouse infestation had chewed the cash into a worthless pile of “thousands” of pink, white and purple confetti.

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“We planned to use part of the money to pay for our child’s studies at school and give the rest to our elderly parents,” Mr Zhao told the Shanghai Daily newspaper.

After a fruitless search for a bank willing to accept the chewed currency, the Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank handed Mr Zhao a lifeline.

A local bank official said that they could help the migrant worker exchange the money – but only if he could put the tiny pieces together, the newspaper reported.

Officials at the bank are now apparently waiting for Mr Zhao to complete his cash-laden jigsaw.