Shocking footage has captured the moment a woman appears to be dragging a child along the pavement of a city centre high street.

In the clip, a woman is seen holding onto what appears to be children’s reins, which are being used to drag the infant along behind her.

But opinion is divided online as to whether the figure is a real child as unedited footage shows that the body of the ‘infant’ remains still, despite being hauled along the street.

Despite being hauled at pace along the pavement, in Basnett Street, in Liverpool, the child does not appear to react and none of the shoppers stop the woman, leaving some viewers to speculate whether it could have been a doll, reports the Liverpool Echo .

But Joe Cain, who filmed to clip, and posted it on Twitter, maintains that the child was real.

Joe, from Liverpool, said: ‘Basically, I was walking through town and the kid fell over and then the woman saw the kid had fallen but kept on walking.

‘The kid seemed fine with everything to be honest, it was people who saw it that seemed worse off.

‘She walked on like that for a while.’

The woman in the video can be seen holding on to what looks like a children’s bag in one hand, while the other is used to hold on to the reins.

As she walks through town, outside TK Maxx, she can be seen to slightly turn her head around to look at the child, but then continues walking.

The small child, who is in a red coat, jeans and trainers, is being trawled along the pavement by the harness that is attached to the back of their coat.

Passers-by can be seen turning their heads as they walk past the woman and child.

Joe said: ‘It sort of caught everyone off guard really, nobody knew what to say or do.

‘I thought she was messing but then she turned around, saw the kid there and kept on going.

‘It was very rough.’

The video, which was posted on social media, has since been retweeted 623 times and had 910 likes.

One man wrote on the Twitter post: ‘That’s pretty bad. Did no one stop her or step in??’

Another woman debated whether the child could have had autism and therefore did not want to walk.

A parent commented on the video to say, ‘I’ve got a particularly tricky 3yo & as much as I’ve felt like doing this, I never have. That poor kid.’

Others debated whether or not the child could actually be a dummy.

Linda McCafferty wrote: ‘Does not look like a child to me, looks like a dummy ......hope it’s not a child though.’

Another thought it was a ‘penny for the guy’.

It is believed that the incident has not been reported the police.