This is the cold-hearted moment a killjoy cop kicks a snowman to pieces in front of the sobbing children who helped build it.

Phone video footage recorded by passers-by in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, shows a family putting the finishing touches to the snowman, complete with twigs for arms.

But on either side of the frozen Yesil River, flashing blue lights from police vehicles can be seen.

Moments later, a second clip shows a cop marching over the ice to kick the creation to pieces.

As a child can be heard choking back tears, the officer stamps the snowman flat and then stomps back to the car, waving angrily at spectators.

It later emerged that police feared the snowman would encourage others onto the ice which, they say, could have broken, plunging them into the perilously icy water below.

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Although some were outraged by the officer’s heavy-handed action, others said he was saving lives.

One social media user said: “He may have saved lives. Someone else will go under the ice. Winter is warm.”

While another reportedly said: “That’s right, because the children will start playing and drown. The ice is thin on the river.”

And a third said: “Happy New Year, after all, there’s a snowman on the ice—it’s dangerous, in case someone falls through.”

The Astana police department defended the officer’s actions.

A spokesperson said: “Having noticed a significant crowd of citizens taking pictures on the ice of the Yesil River near a snowman, the local police inspector who was on duty at the station on New Year’s Eve, in order to avoid an accident, after conducting a preventive conversation, decided to destroy the snow figure.

“As the law enforcement officer explained, he did this because, given the weather and thin ice on the river, people in a pre-holiday mood would not appreciate the danger and could fall into the icy water.”