A woman tried to throw herself in front of a moving train to “scare” her boyfriend during an argument.

It was apparently intended as a joke – but her boyfriend’s quick action saved her life.

The heart-stopping incident was captured by CCTV cameras at Nanjing South railway station in eastern China’s Jiangsu province.

The woman, only identified as Wang, and her boyfriend were waiting to board a train.

In the footage the train can be seen pulling into the station when Wang (33) makes a mad dash towards the tracks and jumps in front of it.

Wang’s shocked boyfriend quickly runs to the platform’s edge and desperately pulls her back up, then drags her to safety.

Station police and railway staff who questioned Wang were stunned by her response: “I was joking around. I’m sorry.”

Wang said she’d been arguing with her boyfriend on the platform and “wanted to scare him” by throwing herself in front of the train.

But it all became a bit too real as she saw the train brush past her feet as she was saved. She said her mind “went blank” as it happened.

Wang was reportedly given a fine for the bad “joke”, but authorities didn’t say how much she was fined.