A young and inexperienced Chinese military recruit was saved by his commander after a bungled throwing of a live grenade left it lying where they were standing.

The quick-thinking army commander, who was not named in Chinese local media, was able to avert a serious accident when the military exercise took a wrong turn on 26th November.

CCTV footage shows the commander and an unnamed recruit being trained on grenade throwing while taking cover behind a thick, concrete wall.

But instead of tossing it to the other side of the wall, the young trainee accidentally throws the live grenade up in the air and fails to notice as he bends down to cover his ears.

Luckily, the commander appears to be on high alert as he immediately spots the grenade dropping towards them.

He grabs the young soldier and drags him into a safety trench in less than two seconds.

Thankfully, his actions were fast enough that they managed to get out of the way right before the grenade explodes.

The footage of their lucky escape was later shared on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

And while praising the commander for his fast response, netizens said the trainee might not be suited for the army.

User ‘Xiao Gu’ wrote: “Such a person is not suitable for military service.”