HANGZHOU -- A street vendor who was trying to avoid "chengguan", or urban management officers, accidentally ran over and killed his son in east China's Zhejiang province.

The fruit seller, Liu, together with his wife, were unaware that their four-year-old son was playing in front of the truck when they started the engine.

The incident occurred at about 4 pm Thursday in Xiaoshan District's economic and technology development zone in the provincial capital of Hangzhou, the district's urban management bureau said in a statement issued later the same day.

According to the statement, urban management workers were around 20 meters away from the couple when they tried to flee. Despite medical attention, the child died.

Witnesses said the couple, as well as other street vendors, had seen the approaching chengguan and were in a rush to leave.

Street vendors that violate sanitation rules or block the flow of traffic can be fined by chengguan.

Monitoring footage was uploaded online late Thursday, triggering wide debate, as it featured the bloody scene after the boy had been run over and Liu confronting enforcement workers.

Microblogging weibo.com recorded more than 6 million hits on the incident as of 5:30 pm Friday.

Some netizens placed the blame on the chengguan officers' raid, while others said Liu had neglected his son.

"The tragedy should not be complicated by issues between chengguan and vendors. The traffic police should be left to investigate the case," said one user, who posts under the name "Pang Bo is coming."