NEW YORK - Rockers Maroon 5 have drawn flak over their latest video showing frontman Adam Levine stalking his wife, Victoria's Secret model Behati Prinsloo.

An American support group slammed the band, saying the video, released on Monday, glorifies stalking, Billboard magazine reported.

On social media, fans have also expressed horror, saying it promotes violence against women.

In the gory video for Animals, Levine plays a butcher who tails a customer played by Prinsloo.

He lurks in alleys, takes pictures of her and breaks into her home. There are clips of him chopping up meat in a butcher shop, and it ends in his fantasy of the couple, nude in bed and drenched in blood.

The lyrics include: "Baby I'm preying on you tonight. Hunt you down eat you alive".

"Maroon 5's video for Animals is a dangerous depiction of a stalker's fantasy - and no one should ever confuse the criminal act of stalking with romance," reported Billboard.com, quoting a statement from Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network, an anti-sexual assault group.

"The trivialisation of these serious crimes, like stalking, should have no place in the entertainment industry."

The National Sexual Violence Resource Centre in America also criticised Levine for treating his wife like a piece of meat in the video, TMZ reported.

On Twitter, fans have called the video "disturbing" and "gross".

Writing in The Guardian, columnist Jessica Valenti said the band was trying "to make terrorising women seem 'sexy'."

Maroon 5 did not respond to a query from Billboard on Wednesday. Levine and Prinsloo wed in July.