A senior official in Chongqing municipality in Southwest China was removed from his post on Friday after the local disciplinary watchdog confirmed he had appeared in a widespread online sex video.

Lei Zhengfu, Party secretary of Chongqing's Beibei district, has been sacked and is under investigation, according to a statement from the information office of the Chongqing government released on Friday.

Lei joins officials who have been sacked after negative pictures or tapes were posted on the social network Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like Web service which has hundreds of millions of users.