A photographer has caught the moment a monkey cries out in perceived anguish while clutching an infant in its arms after it appeared to have collapsed.

Photographer Avinash Lodhi captured the sight in Jabalphur, India, when he suddenly saw a group of monkeys rushing around.

“I decided to sit down and watch their activities,” he said, the Metro reported.

“I wanted to capture some pictures of them, even though I was losing light, but I managed to capture this. It was so quick I didn’t even know what was happening when I took the picture,” he said.

While the baby monkey appears to have collapsed in the photograph, it was in the end. It had tripped and fallen over but soon sprung back up after the picture was taken, The Telegraph reports.

Mr Avinash, 31, added: “This picture is very close to my heart because throughout my entire photography career I have never seen anything like this.