This is the moment a dog bit off more than it could chew when it got too close to close to a pet turtle.

As the curious pooch began sniffing around the bad-tempered reptile it bit back, trapping the dog’s tongue in its powerful jaws.

The footage shows the dog howling as it tries desperately to pull its tongue away from the turtle but the reptile is having none of it.

The incident took place in the city of Hangzhou, the capital of China’s Zhejiang province, on Saturday, 20th August.

The dog’s owner, who has been named only as Mr Zhou in local media reports, appears to be helping it too and after prodding the turtle a bit, the reptile lets go, arching its head back and apparently trying to bite Mr Zhou as the footage ends.

Local media reported that Mr Zhou had bought a few turtles and that the curious dog got a little too close for comfort.

A second piece of footage shows the dog’s swollen tongue after it was bitten. Despite looking a bit tender, the dog, which appeared to be a puppy, looked no worse for wear.

The images quickly made the rounds on Chinese social media after the footage was shared on Douyin, which is what TikTok is called in China.

It is unclear if the turtle was being kept as a pet or if it was to be used to make food, as turtles are a common ingredient in China.