Chinese man rescued after trying to paddle across river on digger

A Chinese man had to be rescued by firefighters after his novel attempt at crossing a river on a digger went spectacularly wrong.

The construction worker tried to navigate the river, in Jiangmen, southern China, by moving his digger like a giant paddle.

However, footage which went viral on social media shows the inventive contraption become unbalanced and capsize in the middle of the water.

The worker is then forced to climb out of the digger and hang on for safety until firefighters reached him.

They eventually attach two ropes to the sinking digger, which the man uses to pull himself to the river bank.

Firefighter Wang Xiaolei told Guangdong Television that other digger drivers should avoid attempting a similar stunt.

“To cross the river, it’s better to drive over the bridge,” he said. “Don’t think you are so talented and gutsy that you can canoe across the river to work on the other side of the bank.”