PHOTOS of a group of employees have gone viral after they were seen crawling as punishment for having not reached their sales targets.

Several photos appearing on popular Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo showed 10 men and women crawling on all fours around the popular Ruyi Lake in Zhengzhou, capital of central China’s Henan Province.

The men and women were reportedly working for a sales company and had failed to reach a specified target.

As punishment, they were made to crawl on the wooden walkway on the shores of the lake, while tourists walked by and took photos.

Reports said the company even sent an extra employee to “supervise” the punishment and make sure they were carrying it out in a proper way.

The pictures led to an immediate online storm on Weibo, with peoples using words like “torture”, “overboard”, and “human rights abuse” to describe the situation.

“How can the company expect to gain employee commitment with policies like this?” one said.

Some employees reported injuries from the punishment, including cut knees and feet.

It’s unclear whether police have investigated the incident.