A tourist was wrestled to the ground by a giant panda after he sneaked into its enclosure at a Chinese zoo to “impress two women”, it has been claimed.

The man, named by local media as Mr Chen, was on a tour of the park in Nanchang, east Jiangxi province, with his companions when he decided to enter the panda house and wake the sleeping animal.

The young man scaled a 1.3 metre fence. then jumped over a three-metre ditch to reach the giant panda, Mei Ling.

However, as he went to wake him, the 19-stone bear lunged for his legs and brought the intruder to the ground.

The pair were then seen wrestling for up to five minutes as Mr Chen tried to free himself from the panda’s “hug”.

Eventually he managed to break free when the panda rolled over and he made his escape.

Mr Chen later underwent a full medical check and was found unharmed, despite witnesses claiming his trousers were badly torn by the panda.

“The young man left the zoo right after he escaped and we could not get in touch with him,” said Kuang Huaming, the deputy head of zoo management.

“On the other hand, we also arranged medical checks for the panda and told the breeders to closely observe its condition. So far the panda is fine.”