A middle-aged man who slapped a SF courier after a traffic accident in Beijing has been strongly condemned by Internet users after a video of the incident was posted online.

In the short video, the man can be seen cursing and slapping a young deliveryman at least five times, even though some bystanders tried to stop him.

After the video went viral, SF Express defended their employees on the company’s official Weibo account, saying that all SF Express delivery people work hard to transport packages through wind, rain and other adverse conditions, and they deserve people’s respect.

Wang Wei, the president of SF Express, posted a link to video on his WeChat account on Sunday, saying in a caption that he would not deserve to be president if he did not launch an investigation into the case. (Screenshot/Wang Wei's Wechat)

The incident occurred on Sunday morning when the deliveryman was delivering packages in the Fugui Garden community in Beijing’s Dongcheng district, Beijing Times reported.

A car was blocking part of the road, and the deliveryman asked the driver to move, a manager claimed. The driver shifted the vehicle and the deliveryman tried to pass through, but then the driver backed up and the deliveryman’s motorbike scratched the car. The video posted online shows only what happened after the scratch was in place, the manager added.

（Screeshot/ Beijing Police Weibo）

Beijing police published a message on their official Weibo account looking for information related to the case around 9 p.m. on Sunday. They also sent another message around 11 p.m., promising that local police officers were already investigating the case.

Around 10 p.m., a manager of the delivery company told Beijing Times that the deliveryman had been diagnosed with soft tissue contusions after being sent to the hospital. Police officers met with him, and the driver was taken to a local police station to give his side of the story.