A mother has taken to keeping her nine-year-old son on a chain attached to her bike so he won't run away, despite promising police she would start to treat the boy kindly.

Li Teng was called to the local police station in the city of Zhuhai in southern China's Guangdong Province to collect son Li Shao, who had run away.

Officers had found the child on the streets earlier in the day and took him to the police station to keep him safe.

Li Teng, 39, who put her nine-year-old son Li Shao on a chain to try to stop him from running away

However, when they called the 39-year-old single mother to go and collect him, the boy said he would rather stay at the police station.

When his mother turned up on her bike, he initially refused to go home and complained that she did not treat him properly.

Ms Li then covinced officers that she would begin to treat him kindly, but just minutes later as soon as they were outside the station, she put her son on a chain to stop him from running away again.

The tearful youngster then threw himself on the floor and held on to a tree in a bid to stop his mother from chaining him, prompting passers-by to call the police.

A police spokeman said that officers didn't have to go far to find the pair, as they were only a few metres away from the station.

The tearful youngster who was taken to a police station did not want to leave with his mother so held on to a tree, left, his mother, right, says she struggles to raise him because he never does what he is told

Ms Li explained that she was a single mother, with no job and limited income and trying hard to overcome difficulties.

She said: 'I struggle to raise him because he never does what he's told, and he always runs away from home.

'This was about the fifth time he'd runaway and I was determined not to let it happen again, I don't want any harm to come to him and it's better if he's on a chain than knocked over by a car and killed.'