Viral cyclist video 'was staged'

A viral video of a female cyclist 'taking revenge' on a catcalling van driver was staged, an eyewitness has claimed.

It shows a van driver verbally abusing the woman before she later gets revenge by ripping the motorist's wing mirror off.

The footage, filmed in Tottenham Court Road, central London, was captured on a moped rider's helmet cam and racked up over 10 million views on Facebook in less than 24 hours.

However, eyewitness Scott Deane told The Sun it was staged, he said: "They practiced the scene two of three times with the motorbike riding behind them.

"A man was telling the girl: 'You need to ride behind the van aggressively'.

"You could see there was already damage to the wing mirror, it was loose ... I couldn't believed it when I saw the video online."

It was posted on the Viral Thread Facebook page, which is run by viral video media company Jungle Creations.

The post asks viewers: "Who is in the wrong here? Cyclist girl gets revenge on catcalling van drivers."

Jungle Creations co-founder Paul Bieboer said his company did not produce the video, telling the newspaper: "It's a source we've never used before."

Jungle Creations says its production team "create and curate the best content on the internet to entertain and engage our audience".

Its production team also produces "original viral video concepts", guaranteeing "clients a minimum of 1 million views on each of these films".