Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska,  Agency: Newsflash

This is the moment a large monkey walks into a minimarket, steals a canned drink after the female worker runs outside in fear, and then runs up a tree with its prize.

The incident was filmed in the city of Guiyang in the landlocked Chinese province of Guizhou, and the footage has been widely shared on the social network Douyin, also known as TikTok.

In the footage, the large monkey is seen eyeing up the store from outside as the female worker is looking at her phone.

The animal saunters into the minimarket and the woman takes a moment 40 notices presence before apparently freaking out and informing people outside the shop.

She runs outside while the monkey is out of view, and joins a small group of people watching and filming from outside the store.

Another clip shows the monkey looking at canned drinks on a display shelf before moving away when the female worker runs out of the shop.

The monkey then returns to grab a can from an upper shelf and then leaves the store.

In the third video, the animal is seen climbing a tree before inspecting the stolen canned drink from the safety of greenery above the street.

The local authorities said the monkey may not have necessarily come from a nearby animal park as mountain monkeys are known to enter urban areas in search of food.

The loss of habitat locally is forcing many wild animals to enter city areas to try and find food causing conflict with the people living there.

But the officials are also investigating whether it was being kept illegally by somebody in the city and may have escaped, or been set free when it got too large, and was no longer a cute baby.