Footage has emerged of a mother chaining up her near-adult son and forcing him to walk along a street in an eastern China town.

In the footage, captured by a passerby in Zhejiang Province on Monday, the boy‘s left hand is tied to his left foot, making him hunch over.

The mother says in the video that her idle son used to hang out with friends all the time and she wants to prevent him from leaving home.

Local police are undertaking an investigation into the family while no further information has been gathered so far, according to news reports.