A game of hide and seek took a dark turn when a boy ended up as cargo after hiding inside a shipping container, while a boat was docked waiting to take it overseas, according to reports.

According to the Mirror, the boy, who is known as only Fahim, was shipped from Bangladesh to Malaysia after hiding in a shipping container while playing with friends in the port city of Chittagong.

Once inside and waiting to be found, it's thought the boy, who authorities named only as Fahim, nodded off and didn't realise the container was being packed off overseas until it was too late.

The container embarked on the journey on January 11, arriving in Malaysia's Port Klang on the 17th.

Terrified and without food, Fahim started banging on the walls of the container and screaming for help before he was eventually discovered by port staff.

The footage was shared online of the boy after he was found in the container, by which point he was starving, exhausted and terrified.

The youngster suddenly found himself in an unknown country surrounded by strangers, who didn't speak his language, with port authorities at first suspecting he was a trafficking victim.

Malaysian police carried out an investigation to find where Fahim had come from, eventually ruling him out as a victim of organised crime.