Instructor dramatically saves army recruit's life after he drops live grenade during training exercise

This is why you should never handle a live grenade with sweaty palms

The police recruit is dragged into the ditch after dropping the grenade (YouTube)

One hapless Chinese police recruit owes his instructor his life when he was pulled to safety moments after dropping a live grenade just metres away from where he was standing.

In footage released by Guangzhou’s Militarised police force on Tuesday, trainee Xiao Zhang is filmed taking part in an exercise where new recruits have to throw a grenade into wasteland before taking cover behind a wall of sandbags.

Despite being less explosive than normal grenades, the plastic grenade that was fumbled by Xiao still had a killing range of seven metres.

Speaking after the incident, Xiao told People’s Daily Online that when he dropped the grenade, “he froze on the spot” and his “mind went completely blank”.

Watch More: Exploding manhole cover in China
Boy knocked to the ground after manhole cover explodes

Despite coming within seconds and metres of nearly losing his life, the lucky Xiao came away with his pride dented but no injuries.

His instructor, however, was not so lucky and suffered a graze to his arm when dragging Xiao into the trench.

Chen Qihui said: 'His body was under mine in the safety trench and after the explosion I discovered that I had sustained an injury to my arm.'