china beach
People play on a beach in front of a residential area in Zhuhai, China, June 29, 2018. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Is it an alien, a mutant creature or an animal? Social media users were confused after an eerie video was posted on YouTube showing a strange creature that washed up on the shores off China. According to reports, the "mutant human-like sea creature" left beachgoers in shock as they tried to figure out what it was.

While most people were scared to come near the creature, a man showed some courage to pick it up. To his surprise, the creature started moving its head and limbs.

"This strange looking creature was found floating along the shore of this beach in China. While the man who found this creature is holding it up to show his friend, we can see it moving its legs. The creature seems to have a human-like head with some sort of arms and legs. In my opinion, this could be a new species of sea life or a mutated starfish," wrote the conspiracy theory channel "The Hidden Underbelly 2.0" in the video's description.

The video, which went viral on YouTube, also received criticism as some users claimed it to be fake. One user said the video was fabricated by someone to gain publicity and that the creature in the video was not real.

"If it's from China. It's fake. The chances of it being fake are extremely high. That place has fake eggs. Fake rice. Fake milk powder. Fake soy sauce. Stay away from that country westerners! Spend your hard earned cash elsewhere on vacation or sightseeing," the user wrote.

This is not the first time a mysterious creature was seen washing up on a shore of a beach.

Last year, a strange fang-toothed creature was discovered on the Gulf Coast of Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. The creature was spotted by Preeti Desai, a social media manager for the National Audubon Society, while assessing the damage of Harvey.

Biologist Dr. Kenneth Tighe of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History was able to identify the creature as an Aplatophis chauliodus, which is also known as a fangtooth snake-eel or tusky eel.

"It might be [a] Bathyuroconger vicinus or Xenomystax congroides," Tighe told EarthTouch News last year. "All three of these species occur off Texas and have large fang-like teeth. Too bad you can't clearly see the tip of the tail. That would differentiate between the ophichthid and the congrids."