This video shows a butcher sprinting along the road after his lamb following its break for freedom from a meat stall where it was about to be slaughtered.

The runaway lamb was filmed making its bid for freedom in the city of Heze in the Chinese province of Shandong on 26th January.

In the footage, two women in a car are heard laughing as they watch the man sprinting along the road in hot pursuit of the runaway lamb.

The sheep takes a right turn down a quiet street and the filming car occupants continue to laugh as they watch the owner apparently run out of steam.

The man is then seen jumping in an electric vehicle by the side of the road, apparently being used by a street cleaner, and sets off in pursuit of the fleeing animal.

According to the news site Toutiao, the lamb was due to be slaughtered at a nearby meat stall when it managed to escape and run through the city streets.

Its owner gave chase, but had to give up on foot and went to borrow a sanitation worker’s electric vehicle to catch up to the runaway lamb, which he eventually did.

According to local reports, the animal was promptly butchered shortly afterwards.