ASSOCIATED PRESS - An electric scooter suddenly exploded inside a home in Beijing while charging in the living room, with a family and their dog escaping serious injuries with mere seconds to spare.

CCTV footage, which captured the July 29 incident in the living room of a flat, shows the electric scooter making a loud bang - startling a dog sleeping beside it - before emitting smoke and then catching alight.

In the video, a man quickly gets up from the sofa and unplugs the scooter. But as the living room becomes enveloped in thick smoke, the man, his daughter and dog quickly flee their home. A ball of fire bursts out and engulfs the whole apartment soon after.

Security and the property management staff were able to extinguish the fire quickly, and no one was injured.

The owner of the flat, named only as Zhao in local reports, said she had only bought the electric scooter a week ago and claimed the damages amounted to GBP 2,200 ($2,800).

The brand of scooter was not known.