Mother diving to protect son saves herself from falling car

A Chinese mother and son have remarkably survived a series of escalating life-threatening moments beginning when a reversing car pushed them over a sheer drop.

CCTV captured on Sunday in Chongqing City shows a black hatchback reversing straight into a mother and her child as they walked up the ramp leading to an above-ground carpark.

The impact pushes them through the fence and to a drop of about four metres.

As the woman lies on the hard cement she looks up to see the hatchback teetering above her, about to crush her.

The mother, identified by CGTN as a Mrs Dai, dives over her son to protect him, jumping out of the path of the falling car in the process.

"I was trying to save my son, but it turned out that I saved myself from being hit by the falling car," she said.

She suffered multiple fractures in the fall, and her son suffered brain damage, but doctors say none of their injuries are life-threatening.