This is the dramatic moment villagers saved a mum and her two little children from drowning when their driver accidentally crashed the car into the middle of a river.

Shocked onlookers captured the incident as it unfolded in the city of Shantou, in Guangdong Province, southern China, on December 3.

Phone footage shows the mum desperately clinging to her youngest child while the other tried to stay afloat by holding onto the backseats of the sinking vehicle.

As the car became nearly completely submerged, with only its rear still above water, two passersby, named Mr Zhang and Mr Li in local media, jumped in to rescue them.

Both reached the helpless family within seconds as a worried crowd cheered them on.

One of them helped the mum and her youngest, while the other grabbed the little girl who clung to the back of the car and swam to shore.

Zhang and Li later told local media they were taking a walk nearby when they suddenly heard someone shouting for help.

They quickly ran to the riverside and saw a car slowly sinking into the river.

After saving the woman and her two children, they said they discovered the driver still inside the car, unable to pull himself together due to shock.

The two then pulled the driver out of the car still alive.

Despite the car being almost completely underwater by that point, they said they could not give up on him and managed to bring the driver to the shore.

On the shore, onlookers extended their helping hands, assisting the two in pulling the driver onto the bank.

Zhang and Li, exhausted from being in the water for a long time, did not take a break and quietly left the scene, local media reported.