Teenagers in Russia and the former Soviet Union have been dressing up as dogs and cats and attacking people in a viral trend that politicians want to ban.

Known as quadrobers, the teenagers wear masks and paws, and crawl around on all fours, barking, growling and meowing.

In Uzbekistan, a former Soviet state in Central Asia, police are on the hunt for at least one teenager, dressed as a dog, who bit a passer-by.

Video, from inside a shop, showed a group of quadrobers, lumbering along a pavement in Tashkent wearing masks and tails. Other photos showed a girl dressed as a cat goading a dog.

The Uzbek interior ministry has now threatened to fine the parents of teenagers 1.9 million Uzbek soum (around £112) for quadrobing.

“Experts believe that ‘quadrobics’ can lead to the child taking on the aggressive actions of animals, injuring himself and others, and can lead to damage to the child’s not yet fully formed psyche, as well as to his isolation from society,” it said.

Quadrobics is believed to have been invented by Japanese sprinter Kenichi Ito, who set a world record bounding along a 100m track on all fours like an ape or monkey in 2008, and then again in 2015.