A shop owner has amazed online commentators after deftly kicking an escaped fish back into the fish tank before going back to take her place at the cash register.

The amusing incident took place in a supermarket in the city of Songyuan in the Chinese province of Jilin, with an internal security camera showing the inside of the store with all the produce stacked on the shelves.

To the left of the fruit and veg is a line of tanks with fresh fish, with the water oxygenated and live fish inside.

The camera then captures the moment one of the fish leaps out of the water and lands on the white tiled floor, where it proceeds to start flapping and moving slowly down the tiles towards the door.

However, the woman behind the cash register then stands up and saunters slowly towards the fish, which is still flopping on the floor, and hooks her foot underneath in order to flick it with a single movement back into the fish tank, where it lands with a plop.

Online commentators were amazed by the skill, including one who wrote: “It is very sad that the woman does not play football, she should apply to the national team.”

Others, however, were more critical, accusing the woman of cruelty in the way she treated the fish, suggesting she should have picked it up with her hands instead.

The identity of the woman was not revealed.