This is the moment panicked officials push back a crowd of excited zoo visitors filming a runaway panda bear after it escaped from its enclosure.

The dramatic escape took place at Beijing Zoo in the Chinese capital Beijing at around 11.30am on 15th December.

Menglan, a young male panda bear, managed to scale the fence to its enclosure and roam free while zoo officials evacuated a group of visitors.

A reporter for the news site Weibo said the panda was back in its enclosure at 3.30pm and two zookeepers were keeping an eye on it, adding that the area where the panda scaled the fence was not in a visitors’ zone.

However, as seen in the footage, the panda managed to wander to the outside wall of its enclosure where a crowd of excited zoo goers stopped to film it and take snaps.

The second video shows zoo officials pushing the crowd away from the panda, apparently stuck on the high border wall.

Menglan was born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in July 2015 and was housed at Beijing Zoo in September 2017 before being unveiled to the public a month later.

A spokesperson for Beijing Zoo told the news site Weibo that the “naughty male youngster” was lured back to its enclosure with food, adding that they will reform the enclosure to prevent a similar incident taking place again in the future.