Shocking footage has emerged showing a man brutally bashing a woman at a Chinese supermarket checkout, allegedly over coronavirus fears.

The unconfirmed video was posted to Reddit yesterday.

It shows a powerfully built bald man in a blue hoodie yelling at a woman as he repeatedly lands vicious blows to her head and yanks her around by her jacket.

The woman is then seen crying in distress as she leaves the store with blood streaming down her face and her mask hanging off.

As she turns away from the camera a bloody handprint can be seen on the back of her white jacket hood.

“In a supermarket in China, the woman kept bumping into the man in front of her in the queue,” the Reddit description said.

“He told her to keep her distance because of coronavirus fears. The woman threatened to infect him and tore off his face mask.”

It’s unclear where or when the video was filmed or whether the description of the incident is accurate.

But the man can be heard swearing at the woman in Mandarin saying words to the effect of, “Why did you pull off my mask?”

The woman is yelling, “Call the police.”

The post attracted thousands of comments, many appearing to side with the attacker.

“Did I miss something because all I see is a grown man physically beating a woman,” one user wrote.

“Even if he was afraid, it looks like he punched her and kept going.”

Another described the comments justifying the bashing as “sick”.

It comes as mainland China confirmed 508 new cases of Covid-19 infections, according to the country’s National Health Commission.

Monday’s cases are up from 409 cases a day earlier, the commission revealed on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases on the mainland so far to 77,658.

The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China had reached 2663 as of the end of Monday, up by 71 from the previous day.

The central province of Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak, reported 68 new deaths, while in the provincial capital of Wuhan, 56 people died.

The outbreak has spread to 29 countries, sparking fears of a global pandemic. In Italy, more than 200 people have tested positive, the largest number outside of Asia.

— with Reuters