Video footage of a Chinese toddler smoking in the street as passers-by do nothing to stop him has sparked outrage.

In the clip, the boy, who looks to be no older than three, is seen holding a cigarette and taking puffs on it, while onlookers watch and laugh.

Despite the number of adults around, no one makes a move to take the cigarette away from the boy. A woman does scold the boy for smoking, but does not go beyond chastising him.

Footage of the video was obtained by video website liveleak.com.

Reports from 2013 said that roughly one in two adult men and two out of every 100 adult women smoked in China.

In 2010, a YouTube video of an Indonesian toddler who reportedly smoked 40 cigarettes a day shocked health experts in the South-east Asian nation.