The attempt by five youths to move a puppy to safety in Subang Jaya on Tuesday nearly went awry when its mother chased after them.

Video footage of the incident has since been shared over 50,000 times on Facebook in less than 18 hours.

Syed Izamin Syed Putra, who recorded the incident using his cellphone, said they noticed the puppy sleeping in a parking lot near Sunway Pyramid and decided to move it out of harm's way.

"As the puppy could have been run over by vehicles, I told my friends that we should move it aside. So we started searching for plastic bag or anything (that could) be used to move the puppy," he explained.

Two of his friends retrieved a plastic bag and cardboard box from the road and attempted to place the puppy in the box.

"I had just started recording when the puppy's mother suddenly appeared from behind a parked Perodua Myvi. We took off without a second thought and took refuge inside the bank," he said.

The 26-second footage shared on Syed Izamin's Facebook account received a lot of comments, including many wanting to know what happened to his two friends as the video abruptly ended when the dog almost caught up with them.

"Luckily, they were unharmed," he quipped.

As Izamin and his friends are Muslims, they needed to use a plastic bag in order not to have direct contact with the puppy, since dogs and pigs are considered unclean in Islam.