This is the incredible image of a powerful bamboo shoot destroying a concrete floor and on the verge of punching a hole in the ceiling as experts in the UK warn that the plant should be banned because it is almost indestructible and hugely damaging to property.

The image was shared by a woman teacher in China showing how the plant smashed its way through a concrete floor to emerge into her room.

The footage was shot in the dormitory of teacher Mo Xiaoyan, who shared images of the uninvited guest in her room at the Jingzhi Primary School in Taojiang County, Yiyang City, Hunan Province.

Instead of chopping it down, she decided to photograph it on a daily basis and says that the shoots, which at the time of writing have now reached up to 4 metres, seem poised to break through the ceiling into the next room.

The young woman said that she had been away for the spring term break and added: “I went back to the dormitory at the end of March and found some cracks in the cement floor, which I thought was caused by the recent days of rain, and I came closer to see that it was a shoot that opened the cement floor.”

She said none of her students had ever seen anything like it, so she decided to document it and was amazed when instead of dying it seemed to thrive.

She said: “I didn’t expect it to survive, and it grew faster and faster. Because it grew on the edge of my dormitory bed, I woke up every day to see it and I could see growing a little taller day by day.”

Experts fear that her room is not the first and that the shoots from the bamboo are likely to appear in other places of the building, as the route networks of even a single bamboo plant can stretch for 30 feet.

Nic Seal, Founder and Managing Director of Environet, who is one of those who says bamboo should not be used in UK gardens, said: “Thankfully we haven’t seen anything quite that bad in the UK, yet! This bamboo is clearly growing from a very well established mature rhizome system and just goes to demonstrate the destructive nature of some of these invasive plants.”

He said they not only damage houses where they can break through brick, masonry, patios and even destroy concrete if there is a crack, but they are also very difficult and expensive to remove.

The plant is especially problematic because it is irrelevant what type of soil it grows in, and it is also undisturbed by temperature, needing little maintenance.

Nic said that the public should be made aware of the risks of bamboo, where sales exploded over the last year when people were spending more time at home because the coronavirus lockdown.

He has now seen a doubling in the number of customers complaining about the plant and trying to have it removed.

He said: “It’s time for garden centres and plant nurseries to take some responsibility for the escalating problem being faced by gardeners up and down the country who have bought bamboo in good faith with no warning of the risks.”