This is the painful moment a weightlifter discovers why you should not be barefoot in the gym when a fellow fitness enthusiast accidentally drops a weight on his foot.

The incident happened when 27-year-old Mr Zheng from Shantou, in Guangdong, China, had gone to his local gym to work out on June 5.

At the beginning of the video, a man in a white T-shirt walked to the barbell rack, lowered his head and put his neck on the barbell, then stretched out his arms to hold the barbell and began to squat.

At the same time, the victim, in a black T-shirt was bending over and looking at his mobile phone in the dumbbell area next to him, and he had nothing on his feet.

When the man in white was doing the second squat, the barbell lost balance and fell to one side. The barbell waits slipped off the barbell and hit the other man on the foot.

Later x-ray revealed a fracture at the base of the proximal phalanx of the fifth toe of the right foot that after being examined was wrapped in a bandage.

The video caused heated debate over who was to blame with one saying that shoes would have prevented the breakage while others said the man who did not fix the weight properly was to blame.

Mr Zheng who works in e-commerce said that he was now taking legal action against the man who dropped the weights after he refused to pay RMB6,000 (GBP 647) in compensation for the pain and suffering, although he did drive the victim to hospital and paid for hospital treatment.

Mr Zhen added: 'The doctor said that my little toe on my right foot was fractured. After applying medication and fixing it, I was told to receive conservative treatment at home and change the dressing on schedule.

'I couldn't touch the ground, bear weight, or walk for a month. After a month, I had to take another X-ray after the fixation was removed.'