Community officers around China have been accused of clubbing pets or stray animals to death in front of horrified residents during their campaigns to stop the spread of coronavirus.

No evidence shows the virus can be passed onto pets, according to the World Health Organization.

But new videos purport to capture workers killing dogs in broad daylight by beating them with wooden rods.

One clip appears to show a black Labrador in Chengdu, Sichuan, being bludgeoned by four volunteers from a community yesterday afternoon, Chengdu Pet Adaptation Platform said

One clip, shared by Chengdu Pet Adaptation Platform, appears to show a black Labrador in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, being bludgeoned by four volunteers from a community yesterday afternoon, the organisation said.

The pet had not attacked anyone and was waiting for its owner on a street when the volunteers surrounded and attacked it, a post alleged.

When the dog's owner arrived, the pet had allegedly died and the officers had left.

A separate clip appears to show one officer in Yongjia County, Zhejiang, savagely hitting a dog by the side of a road using a wooden stick when a number of local residents watched on

A separate clip appears to show one officer in Yongjia County, Zhejiang Province, savagely hitting a dog by the side of a road using a wooden stick.

The officer donned a face mask and a sheet of plastic as a makeshift protective suit. He is seen hitting the pooch at least three times as some residents watched on.

According to animal activists, the incident took place today in Huangsha Village. It is said officers culled all chickens and dogs after two visitors to the community were diagnosed with the virus on Monday.

Just yesterday, a video supplied to MailOnline by animal lovers showed one worker beating a pooch to death with a huge wooden club in broad daylight.

A community officer in Nanchong, China, has been caught on camera brutally killing a stray dog with a wooden club. The horrifying incident took place this morning, insiders revealed

The horrifying incident took place yesterday morning at a residential complex in the city of Nanchong in Sichuan Province, according to activists.

They condemned the community officer of abusing his power and killing animals in the name of preventing the coronavirus.

Officials of the community denied online allegations.

They claimed that the video showed the workers culling a stray dog which had bitten some residents and caused panic in the complex.

Communities around the country allegedly ordered citizens to get rid of their pets - or risk having them culled - amid fears that animals could also pick up the deadly disease.

World Health Organization (WHO), however, says that it has not seen any evidence of the virus being passed onto cats or dogs.

The new coronavirus has killed at least 1,116 people and infected more than 45,200 globally

Wuhan has launched a campaign to screen the health of all residents to identify potential coronavirus patients. Pictured, a health worker donning a hazmat suit checks the temperature of a man at a centralised observation and isolation station in Wuhan on February 5

Officials screened more than 10 million residents after visiting 4.21 million households in 3,371 communities, Wuhan's Communist Party Secretary Ma Guoqiang said at a conference Monday

The widespread fears were sparked by comments made by one of China's top experts for infectious diseases.

Prof. Li Lanjuan, a member of the senior expert team from China's National Health Commission, last month warned that pets would also need to be quarantined should they be exposed to coronavirus patients.

Authorities in China are now trying desperately to stop people from throwing away their pets.

Animal welfare organisation Humane Society International (HSI) condemned the Chinese Sichuan workers' behaviour.

HSI's spokesperson Wendy Higgins said: 'Any evidence of animals being beaten to death in the street is extremely distressing, no matter what the circumstances.

'If these videos do indeed show dogs being brutally killed in China out of an unwarranted fear of spreading coronavirus, then it is doubly upsetting.

'Community officers should be charged with disseminating accurate and scientifically supported information to the public at this time, not in carrying out cruel and pointless culls of dogs.

'The advice by the World Health Organisation that there is no evidence dogs and cats can be infected with the virus, needs to be heard throughout China.'