A Chinese businessman is fighting for his life after a woman fell to her death in a shopping mall – and landed on top of him.

Yu Li, 42, was shopping with his three-year-old son in a shopping mall in Changsha, Hunan province, in Southern China, when he was hit on the head by the unidentified woman as she plummeted from the fifth floor.

The man had gone to the shopping centre to buy his son a present for the Chinese New Year.

A police spokesman said: ‘He was walking towards the escalator, when he was struck by the falling woman. She was killed instantly and he was left badly injured.

‘The hospital tells us it is still a question of touch and go whether he will survive.

We are looking at CCTV footage to try and work out whether the woman jumped or was pushed.’

The Chinese New Year celebration, that comes at the end of this month is the biggest event on the annual Chinese calendar where the entire country takes a week off to spend time with their families.

The boy was treated for shock before being handed over to his mother and was not hit in incident.