This is the heartwarming moment a Honduran man stops to free a huge turtle caught up in the roots of a tree while trying to enter the sea.

Footage of the rescue shows that at first, the stricken turtle looks almost dead as it hangs from a tree root just inches from the shore.

But as the rescuer – named as Miguel Angel Escobar – takes out a small machete he begins hacking and sawing away at the roots.

Finally, he manages to cut through the root trapping the turtle and helps it fall into the sea.

Then he carefully flips it over onto its belly and within seconds the turtle is swimming to freedom.

As it swims away, Miguel’s wife can be heard saying: “Look at it go. ‘I’m alive’. How beautiful.”

Then she adds: “Saved!”

The feelgood footage was filmed on the island of Utila in the Bay Islands of Honduras.

Miguel shared the footage on Facebook with the message: “This doesn’t happen every day! We thought she was dead.”