A vicious fight in south east London broke out in the middle of the street when a very angry lorry driver attacked a motorist and they fight – with fists and belts - surrounded by traffic in broad daylight.

The video shows a large, stocky man violently and repeatedly punching someone through the open window of a car.

He had been driving a lorry just behind the motorist before he started his violent offensive.

The fight, which erupted in the middle of three lanes of traffic, was filmed from the top floor of a double deck bus nearby at approximately 7pm on Friday.

The victim - a smaller male wearing a green t-shirt - then gets out of the car and the large stocky man immediately punches him again until the other male removes his belt and starts to lash him with it.

But the other male is so enraged that the belt does not deter him for long and he resumes his offensive, swinging repeated, forceful punches at the man.

He beats him mercilessly against a metal rail and a wall that borders the pavement until the other man jumps free and darts back into the road.

The men seem to have a discussion at this point, as traffic is still stalled all around them.

A vicious fight in south east London broke out in the middle of the street when a very angry lorry driver attacked a motorist and they fight – with fists and belts - surrounded by traffic

A cyclist approaches and places the bike wheel between the warring parties and tries to calm the situation.

The man in green takes one more swipe with his belt but the two men then depart, with the original aggressor climbing back into the cab of his white lorry.

Police said they were called to the scene but were unable to locate the two drivers, who had fled by the time they arrived.

The motorist (right) wearing a green t-shirt - then gets out of the car, removes his belt and starts to lash the larger man with with it which deters him mometarily

A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said that police were called at 7.12pm on June 30 to reports of a disturbance involving two drivers on New Cross Road but upon arriving, nobody made themselves known to police.

'Officers carried out an area search but there was no trace of the people involved.'

But the larger male renews his offensive and pins the other man against a wall

Comment online was exceptionally racist, with many people commenting on the fact that one person was black and one was white rather than on any other aspects of the fight.

But Simon Bonski wrote 'Doesn't matter skin colour that's for racists. When you are a smaller man you never starts to a bigger guy. Weight differences are a key. '