WARNING - DISTRESSING CONTENT: A horrifying clip has emerged online of the moment a cat was thrown off a bridge from a moving car onto the road below. It is not known whether the animal survived the incident, which reportedly happened at around 3am on Saturday.
The video, which appears to have been filmed by a backseat passenger in the vehicle, shows the cat looking out of the window from the front seat.
As the car gets close to the bridge the animal is then picked up and the front-seat passenger appears to fling it out of the open passenger-side window.
Police are investigating what happened and have charged a teenager with animal cruelty in connection with the incident which allegedly took place at Beenleigh, south of Brisbane, on the Pacific Motorway, in Australia.
The video shows the cat going over the concrete guardrail in the darkness down to the road below.
Police tracked down the suspect at a Gold Coast address yesterday.
The 15-year-old girl has also been charged with endangering the safe use of a vehicle by throwing an object.
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7News reports that she is due to appear in the Southport Childrens Court at a later date.
Animal welfare organisation RACQ Queensland condemned the girl's alleged actions.
A spokesperson said: "We condemn this blatant animal cruelty."
The spokesperson added: "They clearly have no empathy and a total disregard for life. It's an absolutely vile act.
"We also don't know the outcome and suffering the cat endured from this situation which is awful."
Beenleigh is a fairly small town and suburb in the City of Logan, Queensland. In the 2016 census, it had a population of 8,252 people.