Employees from a Chinese company have been ordered to crawl on the streets after they failed to make enough sales for their bosses.

A series of pictures, which were believed to be taken on October 2, show a dozen of staff advancing on their hands and knees next to a lake in the city of Zhengzhou, central China.

Representatives of the staff told People's Daily Online that the task was a punishment set by their company because they had failed to hit their sales targets.

Shocking: A Chinese company has ordered its staff (pictured) to crawl on the streets after they failed to hit their sales targets

Ordeal: A dozen of staff were told to finish a lap around a huge lake by crawling in Zhenzhou, central China

Incident took place in the middle of the week-long National Day holiday in China when most people don't need to work and make long-distance trips.

Employees were told to finish a lap around Ruyi Lake, a 23-acre lagoon in the city's central business district, by crawling.

According to eyewitnesses, nearly everyone's shirts and trousers were torn during the humiliating punishment.

At least one employee was seen crying by the side of the road due to the harshness of the ordeal.

It's also believed that the company, which remains unidentified, arranged a 'supervisor' to ensure nobody could slack off during the task.

Humiliating: Eyewitness said nearly everyone's shirts and trousers were torn during the severe punishment

Emotional: An employee was seen crying during the punishment as his colleagues tried to comfort him

Images of the incident were uploaded to Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, and attracted thousands of comments.

Chinese media and web users were infuriated by the company's physical punishment.

One web user with the screen name of '3266878185' posted: 'This is so inhumane.'

Another user 'MMMMtinging' said: 'I'd quit a company like this a long time ago. Is the boss a psychopath?'