A devastated mother dog dug up her dead puppies and tried to take them away in heartbreaking footage.

The incident took place in Suzhou in the Chinese province of Anhui when the dog suffered complications during birth.

Two puppies died during labour and the heartbroken mother dug up their buried bodies from the soil ‘five or six times’, according to the owner Mr Qin.

A devastated mother dog dug up her dead puppies and tried to take them away in heartbreaking footage

In the first video, the dog is seen with a dead puppy in her mouth as the owner pets her and eventually tries to remove the body from between her teeth.

The second clip shows the mother licking the bodies of two puppies buried in a shallow grave after she apparently dug up the soil to get to them.

Apparently sad and weeping, the dog responds to her owner’s caring strokes.

In the first video, the dog is seen with a dead puppy in her mouth as the owner pets her and eventually tries to remove the body from between her teeth

In the third video, the dog is seen walking along a path with one of the dead puppies in her mouth.

At the end of the clip, Mr Qin takes the puppy from the dog and holds its limp body in his hand.

It is unclear whether any other puppies survived the birth.

At the end of the clip, Mr Qin takes the puppy from the dog and holds its limp body in his hand