A real-life fat cat has been brought to book after bringing down a library shelf when it settled down for a nap.

The cat’s 18lb (8.1kg) frame was too much for the rickety stricture in the city of Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, southern China.

CCTV footage shows that just seconds after it sat down for a snooze, the metal shelves collapsed beneath it.

As the puss scrambles to get clear, the books and shelves collapse around it bringing down another shelf beside it.

Owner – named only as Mr Wu in local media – said there had been more than 1,000 books in his personal library.

Mr Wu said: “The quality of the bookshelf is not very good, and the cat jumps on top of it to sleep every day.

“On the day the bookshelf collapsed, I was on a business trip, and I collapsed after watching the surveillance at night.”

Another piece of footage shows the poor owner having to roll up his sleeves and clean up the mess, painstakingly picking up and relocating every single piece of his book collection.

Mr Wu said that fortunately, his cat was fine, and he has bought a new bookshelf to replace the old one.