Vision has emerged of a man catching a baby who fell from the second storey of a building in China.

The one-year-old had climbed onto a window sill during a thunderstorm.

A shopkeeper who lives in the opposite building, named as Mr Li, noticed the baby was in trouble and prepared to make the catch.

With the help of another man, named as Mr Hu, he was able to hand over the child safely to its mother.

The footage shows other passers-by helped by moving a small black sofa and cardboard into place under the window.

"I didn't think too much at the time. I was just afraid of failing to catch him. Some people put down cardboard to avoid serious injuries to the baby if I failed to catch him," Mr Li said.

Mr Hu said "it was nothing but human instinct to do so".

The incident happened in Xiaolan Town, Zhongshan City, in the southern province of Guangdong.

ABC/Reuters