(Video) Restaurant owner spared as flower pot falls seconds after feeding stray cat

A grilled fish restaurant owner in southwest China narrowly avoided injury after a flower pot fell from above just seconds after he stepped away to feed a stray cat, according to mainland media reports.

The incident occurred at around 8pm on Tuesday (Jan 27) outside a restaurant in Guiyang, Guizhou province. The owner, surnamed Shi, was working at the shop entrance when he noticed a stray cat nearby and took food from a stainless steel basin to feed it.

Footage circulating online showed that about two seconds after Shi stepped away, a flower pot fell from an upper floor and smashed onto the spot where he had been standing, shattering on impact and deforming the metal basin.

Shi later said the incident was accidental and not a case of objects being deliberately thrown from height. He explained that an employee was repairing lighting facilities on the rooftop of the second floor when the flower pot was accidentally knocked over.

“If it had hit my head, the consequences could have been serious,” Shi said.

He added that the stray cat had been coming to the restaurant for food for more than a month and that he regularly fed it with fish offal.