Firefighters have dramatically stopped a man jumping to his death while holding a two-year-old child by kicking him through an open window back into his bedroom.

Soldiers and firefighters had rushed to a block of flats in Xining, the capital of China's Qinghai province, after a man threatened to throw himself from a window. 

The man, who at points was crying and screaming, was sat on the ledge while cradling the child.

The man was sat on a windowsill

Rescue workers quickly inflated a safety cushion at the foot of the building in case the man jumped or fell, but at the same time, two firefighters began abseiling down the building from higher windows.

When one was just a few metres above the man's head, he swung himself out from the wall before swinging back in to kick the man back into the bedroom.

Rescuers picked up the child

Rescuers who had entered through another window were there to pick up the child.

The man had reportedly had an argument with his wife.