A shocking video has emerged of people eating live fish as they struggle and squirm in desperation in restaurants in China.

Horrible videos show large fish still moving despite being partially cut up and laid out on plates while being prodded with chopsticks by diners.

One fish, who has half its side slashed off with its flesh laid out in strips in front of it, can be seen repeatedly opening its mouth, as if gasping for breath, as someone prods at it.

A pot of wriggling eels are dumped in a large bowl of sauce on another dining table, and some of them make a dash for freedom, squirming across the table and onto the floor.

A man picks up a an octopus from a bowl of broth and shovels the wriggling creature, which scientists say feel pain and are intelligent, into his mouth as other diners laugh and joke as he does so.

The creature's tentacles reach out from his mouth and wrap around his face, grabbing at their assailant before he bites them off.

In another clip, a fish opens its mouth repeatedly as people pick up pieces of its mutilated flesh with chopsticks and eat it.

Large grubs wriggle about in a bowl of broth in another video.

But China is not the only country in which this ethically questionable practice of eating live seafood takes place.

Oysters are eaten live in many countries, including Britain, and restaurants in Europe and America serve live lobster.

Wendy Higgins of Humane Society International told MailOnline: ‘This video is truly sickening both in terms of animal cruelty but also in terms of what humans are capable of doing to our fellow creatures.

Table of nightmares: The fish, which have half their sides slashed off, can be seen repeatedly opening their mouths, as if gasping for breath, while people prod them with chopsticks

A large pot of wriggling eels are dumped in a large bowl of sauce on another dining table, and some of them make a dash for freedom, squirming across the table and onto the floor

'These fish and baby squid will have endured the unspeakable horror and pain of being eaten alive, all to satisfy diners' lust for extreme cuisine. Their ordeal is protracted and disgusting.

'There are no laws to protect animals like this in China, and it is that lack of legal recognition that can in itself encourage an attitude of disrespect.

'Basic respect for animals as sentient, thinking, feeling creatures is absolutely fundamental to protecting them; without that it becomes so much easier for people to divorce themselves from the pain and suffering that they commit.

'Some of these hideous scenes in the video are not a million miles away from what we may see in the new series of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, where the live eating of grubs and bugs is broadcast to huge audiences for our entertainment.

'So whilst we absolutely should and must abhor the kind of violence we see at this restaurant in China, we should also take a good long look out ourselves.’