The child is pulled back by his grandmother. Photo: screenshot of video posted by The Beijing News

A grandmother, who tied a rope around her 7-year-old grandson and lowered him onto a fourth floor balcony to save her cat in Nanchong, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, got a blast of criticism from netizens and local police on Sunday afternoon. 

In a video posted by guancha.cn, the boy is seen with a rope tied around his shoulders and between his legs standing on the guard rail of a balcony as his grandmother holds the other end of the rope from the balcony above.

The boy is seen seemingly stuffing the cat into bag and then being pulled back up by the grandmother and another person, who wasn't identified.  Frightened neighbors are heard shouting at the grandmother to stop, but she insists on slowly pulling the boy back to her balcony. 

Many netizens said the grandmother seems to care more about her cat than her grandson. 

The grandmother, who is the boy's only caregiver, was given a stern lecture by  local police.