This is the moment a tractor driving over ice to remove snow suddenly crashes through a hole and disappears into the water below.

The shocking disappearance, that was over in an instant and in which the tractor almost instantly disappeared, left the driver floundering around in the ice cold water and struggling to stay afloat in his thick winter clothing.

The video was captured by CCTV filming the fishponds in the prefecture level city of Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province, China.

The heavy tractor, using a snow remover, was rather unwisely driving over the ice to remove the snow, which needs to happen in order to ensure that enough oxygen gets into the water, particularly at the sides where there is often thinner ice.

But after executing a turn, the tractor gets towards the middle of the pond again and then suddenly a huge crack appears which in a second forms a hole that the tractor then disappears into.

The driver fortunately manages to gain a hold on the unbroken ice and hoist himself out where he struggles to stand his feet in the frozen winter landscape.

A person in the background appears to have seen what is happening and can be seen walking towards the freezing cold and soaking wet man as the footage ends

The tractor was later recovered from the bottom of the 4-metre-deep pool and the driver, identified only by the surname Zheng, was unharmed although treated for shock from the cold.