A video of a man who was left in shock after a pot of store-bought noodles he was eating exploded in his face recently went viral on social media.

The man – identified as Mr Dabai by local media – was reportedly having a meal while on duty in the early hours of the morning.

It was reported that he had unwittingly placed the steaming hot pot over a cigarette lighter which exploded because of the heat from the noodles.

The incident, which was caught on CCTV footage, happened in the city of Korla, located in Xinjiang Province, in northwest China.

In the video, Mr Dabai can be seen calmly enjoying his instant noodles and as he is about to take a bite, the noodles fly into the air and splatter all over the table. The stunned Dabai grabs his phone immediately after, as he reportedly thought it was what caused the hot mess.

Fortunately, both the phone and the man were completely fine, as he was fully dressed in protective clothing, so wasn’t left with any injuries – the only thing that was ruined was his meal.

The video of the bizarre incident was posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, where it garnered over 11,000 likes and more than 4,000 comments.