A Chinese fireman risked his neck rescuing a small boy beside himself with fear at the bottom of the well.

Video of the daring retrieval shows the firefighter being trussed into a makeshift rope harness while the five-year-old's screams of distress echo up out of the darkness.

Apparently the boy was so panicked that he could not comprehend the rescuers' instructions – so one of them stepped up to plunge face first down the chute.

Strapped into the rig, the firefighter was lowered Mission: Impossible -style down to the crying child, who was returned to the surface dirty and traumatised but seemingly otherwise uninjured.

His carers rush to him in relief as he collapses on his back, exhausted from the ordeal.