A bouncer has been disciplined after a video emerged of him slapping a man to the ground outside a nightclub in Dartford - but the woman who posted the footage has pleaded for him to keep his job.

Niamh Watt uploaded a 15-second clip of the incident outside Air and Breathe nightclub in Essex Road, which has attracted almost 150,000 views.

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The video shows the man hitting himself in the face in an apparent confrontation with the bouncer before the doorman leans down to slap him across the face, knocking him backwards to the ground.

The incident took place at the weekend.

A spokesoman for Air and Breathe said action has been taken against the bouncer.
She said: “We take this matter extremely seriously.

"This behaviour is not acceptable and is not reflective of our high professional standards.

"We have raised the incident with our security provider, who has already taken action against the individual concerned."

But Miss Watt wrote to the Dartford Messenger Facebook page explaining the doorman had been provoked by the man after he was attacked.

She posted: “Me and my friend were in the smoking area when the man in the video came up to us on the outside and tried to grab us we told him to go away and he made his way to the bouncers and we kept a close eye on him.

"He then started shouting abuse at one of the women bouncers and then the male bouncer in the video asked him to make his way home.

"The man didn’t like this and then swung at the bouncer hitting him in the face then the bouncer pushed him away and the man started hitting him.

"The bouncer obviously retaliated and hit him back this went on for another two minutes constantly hitting each other back and forth and then I caught the last 10 seconds.

"The reason I want to write this is because I don’t want the bouncer to lose his job over this or be made out to be nasty."

A police spokesman confirmed the incident had been reported to them, but no action had been taken.

Video: The bouncer is shown slapping the man