Abstract: The embodiments of the present application provide an alarm image recording method and apparatus, the method includes: capturing a picture according to a preset frequency, and caching the picture captured each time to a buffer of the video capture device; extracting, after a preset time period since when occurrence of an event meeting an alarm condition is detected, at least two pictures from the buffer according to a time point at which the event occurs; determining the at least two pictures as alarm images and saving to the video capture device or a cloud storage server. In the present application, since the alarm image including at least two pictures may provide more abundant information than an alarm image including a single picture, the completeness of presenting the event by the alarm image can be improved. Compared with the alarm image including a video, the amount of data is reduced by at least an order of magnitude, thus reducing data amount of the alarm image.