This video shows the shocking moment a signal rocket fired in the air as part of the official Navy Day celebrations in Russia ends up striking a woman.

The incident took place in the village of Olga in the Kavalerovsky District, in the Russian federal subject of Primorsky Krai on 25th July.

According to the video, the 59-year-old man in a sailor’s uniform, whose identity was not disclosed, raised his hand and fired the signal flare.

Navy Day, also known as Day of the Russian Navy, is a national holiday in the Russian Federation and a senior holiday in the Russian Armed Forces which honours Russian Navy sailors, and is celebrated annually on the last Sunday of July.

However, instead of the rocket resuming its journey in the air, it ricocheted in a crowd of people sitting at the beach and wounded an unknown 28-year-old woman from the city of Vladivostok.

The woman can be heard crying for help at the end of the video, and was taken to the hospital due to a hip injury and treated accordingly.

Social media users accused the seller of not taking into account the wind direction when firing the flare.

Instagram user Olechka3813 said: “The sailor clearly does not pay attention in which direction the wind blows.”

Another user called mikhail_polyntsev claimed that the sailor did everything right, whilst the whole problem was the low-quality signal flare and said: “The signal flare was out of date, it was destined never to fly in the intended direction.”

Others commented that the sailor was the only one who ran to help the victim, and criticised the indifferent reaction of the other spectators towards the situation.

Video footage of the unfortunate incident was shared on several social media networks including the Russian counterpart of Facebook called VKontakte.

The police are reportedly investigating the situation.