Monkeys with menaces! Moment five monkeys mob a tourist for food before they are chased off by a spade-wielding woman

 This is the moment a tourist was mugged by begging monkeys looking for food as he visited a temple in China.

Footage recorded at Mount Jiuhua, near the city of Chizhou in the south of Anhui province, shows a young man ascending a flight of stairs towards a temple. 

The tourist hotspot, famous for hosting several Buddhist temples which are open to the public, has become infested with shameless monkeys that try to exact a tasty 'toll' from visitors.    

A woman wielding a spade rushed to the aid of a tourist who was being mobbed by thieving monkeys on the stairs to a Buddhist temple in south of Anhui province, China

In the video, the monkeys can be seen sitting on the snow-covered steps leading up to the temple.

One young man, who was reportedly with a group of tourists, decides to brave the primates and venture up to the temple.

But he is surrounded by five menacing monkeys and lets out a horrified yell as one of grabs his arm, threatening to throw him off balance on the slippery steps.

Having been accosted by the five hungry primates, the young man abandoned his plan of seeing the temple and raced to safety - as a woman wielding a spade scolded the monkeys

One of the monkeys, a resident at the tourist hotspot of Mount Jiuhua, sits on a wall next to a stone dragon, wearily watching the woman with the spade

A woman waving a spade comes to his aid. She hits the ground with the tool, startling them.

One of the five monkeys dashes at the tourist again and the young man abandons his hope of seeing the temple.

Instead he races down the stairs and out of view of the camera, which focuses in on the woman with the spade, as she scolds the monkeys as though they were children.