A bizarre incident in which a Chinese man fell into an abandoned well in Thailand and remained trapped for three days – his cries for help mistaken by villagers for ghostly sounds – has amused many on mainland social media.

The Universal Daily News in Thailand reported that on November 24, local police in Mae Sot, Tak province, near the Thai-Myanmar border, received reports from villagers who heard strange cries emerging from a nearby remote forest.

As police and rescue personnel ventured into the forest to investigate, they called out and were unexpectedly met with voices responding in return.

Following the source of the sound, they discovered a Chinese man trapped at the bottom of a 12-metre-deep dry well in the forest.