A man in China has been charged with attempted murder for pushing his girlfriend down a manhole on the street, where she spent the next 60 hours trying to survive.

A shocking video has emerged of the incident, which shows footage shot in December.

In the clip, the man places cardboard across the manhole, which leads to the sewer.

Shortly afterwards, he reappears with a woman under an umbrella. He leads her to the trap and she falls down into it.

The women appears stuck and the man is then seen aggressively pushing her until she falls in completely.

Related

The video then shows the man cover the hole up with the original lid, before he secures the entrance with cardboard.

The woman remained underground and submerged in water, where she battled to survive, until she was finally discovered by a group of passers-by who heard her crying for help.

When she was finally freed, she was wearing only her underwear as she had torn her clothes in an attempt to make a ladder to climb out of the sewer. However, she was not strong enough to push the lid and free herself.

According to TVNZ, the woman is only known as Guo.

She told the New Zealand TV channel: "I did not sleep at all the first night I fell in the manhole. I could see the darkness around me. I thought that I would not be choked to death if I looked up."

She also added that she thought her boyfriend, also known as Guo, may have pushed her into the sewer to escape paying her 100,000 Yuan (£9,891) in debt.

The man told police he had intended to kill the woman because he had an affair with her, but later admitted it was because he owed her money.

China