This is the moment an overexcited gorilla stars a turf war at a zoo in southern China as he targets a female visitor to his enclosure.

The great ape – who has a reputation for being touchy – started tearing up handfuls of mud and grass as soon as he saw the woman at Nanning Zoo.

And as she stood outside the safety fence, the powerful gorilla hurled his mud bombs at her as she walked around the perimeter.

Luckily he missed but – as this footage shows – he did appear to catch another luckless spectator who didn’t duck in time.

The woman – named Ms Tan in local media – said the gorilla seemed to follow her around the enclosure no matter where she went.

Eventually, believing she was safe behind the wall, she started filming a selfie with the excitable gorilla in the background.

But she had to hide under the wall and almost got hit again when he kept trying to hit her.

She added that she didn’t think the gorilla was annoyed and had merely been trying to interact a bit with the people because he was probably bored.

She said: “I don’t know why it was getting so excited, but it was certainly worth the price of the ticket.”