A 4-MINUTE video showing a fight between a store owner and a group of urban management officers, or chengguan, in Pingshan New Area that went viral on the Internet on Friday was misleading due to the filming angle, the Pingshan authority said on its official Weibo and WeChat.

    According to a report on Monday’s Southern Metropolis Daily, the video, which was uploaded onto local social media platforms Friday, was watched more than 1 million times over the weekend.

    The video showed a man who owns a grain-processing store at a wet market in Pingshan New Area arguing with urban management staff while a woman yells and points at the officers. After a slapping sound, the urban management officers rush to the man, punching him and pushing him to the ground. The woman also falls to the ground and onlookers scream for the fight to stop.

    The store owner then rushes inside the store, with the crying woman behind him. About 10 seconds later the man rushes out of the store with a knife and chases the urban management staff. The man is thrown to the ground before an elderly woman picks up the knife and puts it to her own neck while crying and screaming.

    The video spurred heated online debate.

    Some netizens said the owner was wrong, but the urban management officers were too aggressive. Other netizens said the urban management team was violently enforcing the law.

    A person in charge of the urban management team said due to the video’s filming angle, it did not present the whole story and misled netizens. The person in charge said when the team was patrolling the wet market, they told the store owner not to occupy the street illegally and to move his products inside. The owner refused to cooperate.

    “The owner and other store workers swore at our team, who were angered. They did have an argument,” the person said.

    “An elderly woman slapped one of our officers, while the owner attempted to throw an electronic scale at us,” he said. “That is why we rushed towards the man, though it looked like a fight.”

    The Pingshan authority said Sunday that the owner had apologized and paid 2,000 yuan (US$314) in compensation as a settlement. (Zhang Xiaoyi)