An American police officer has been filmed heroically rescuing a child trapped in a frozen pond.

Dramatic bodycam footage showed Troy Ellison, an officer in Arkansas’s Jonesboro Police Department, crawling out onto the ice as the crying child begs for help.

The boy, wearing a red top and navy trousers, was clinging to the edge of the ice with most of his body submerged in the icy water.

Mr Ellison used a rope and an axe to hoist the boy out of the pond with the help of a fireman and another police officer.

The boy was taken to hospital for a check-up after the rescue, which occurred shortly after 10am on January 20.