A woman regretted cleaning her car and giving it a polish before leaving it to dry in the courtyard with a flock of sheep after one of them decided to attack the shiny new vehicle.

The sheep apparently saw its reflection in the sides of the black Mazda and, believing it to be a challenger, head-butted the rival repeatedly in an attempt to drive him off.

The end result was that the car ended up with more than 20 large dents after being parked in the property in Chaoyang, which is a prefecture-level city in western Liaoning province, in north-eastern China.

The owner of the sheep said that the car belonged to his daughter and after a long journey she had decided to give it a clean before parking it to dry.

She was horrified to see the damage when she returned, and CCTV images reveal the sheep spotting its reflection in the door panel, and repeatedly bashing the car leaving numerous dents.

The man reassured his daughter that they would get their revenge, and the sheep was slaughtered a short while later and turned into a meal for the whole family to make the daughter feel better.

But she has apparently decided not to repair the dents as it would cost too much money, which means the reminder of the sheep’s actions will be with the woman for quite a while.