A Chinese official was removed from his post after he was pictured accepting a piggy back ride from a resident of a typhoon hit city through flood water – because he didn’t want to ruin his shoes.

A picture of the official, known only as Wang, sparked outrage when it was posted on Chinese social media website Sina Weibo.

The photo was taken as Wang visited the city of Yuyao, in Zhejiang province, as the area suffered widespread flooding after being hit by a devastating typhoon which left 10 people dead.

According to China’s state-run news agency Xinhua, a caption posted alongside the photograph claimed that Wang was being carried because he was wearing a pair of expensive shoes made of cloth.

But the Sanqishi Township government, which employed the official, claimed that he had been set to remove his shoes to walk barefoot to a flooding victim’s house.

But according to MSN reports, despite Wang’s insistence that he would walk, the local picked him up anyway and carried him through the water.

Whether the official had intended to walk as suggested by reports or not, the online fuss created by the picture saw him removed from his post as director of the township’s construction office.

Hundreds of thousands of people had to be evacuated from their homes after Typhoon Fitow hit southeastern China last week.