A barber who saved a lad from choking on a sweet while he was cutting his hair has been hailed a hero.

The young boy had been sitting on his mother’s lap at the hair salon in Wenzhou, in the Chinese province of Zhejiang, when he suddenly began choking.

CCTV footage from the barbershop shows the boy’s mother frantically slapping her son on the back trying to dislodge the sweet.

But he’s only saved when the cool-headed hairdresser takes over and calmy performs the Heimlich manoeuvre on the boy.

During the incident, the other employees can be seen continuing their work, while the customers are also sitting at their places.

Only one woman approaches to help, still holding her mobile phone.

After saving the boy, the unflappable barber can be seen carrying on with the haircut.

The Heimlich manoeuvre is a technique used to help people who are choking when external objects cause suffocation.

The technique consists of a few steps and the person who performs the technique needs to be behind the person choking.

Then they should lean him forward and give five blows to their back with the heel of their hand, then place their arms around their waist, making a fist and placing it just above the navel.

Finally, they should then grab the fist with the other hand and push it inward and upward at the same time.

Five of these abdominal thrusts need to be performed and the process needs to be repeated until the person can breathe on their own.