When workers of a post office in Jiangning district in Nanjing went to work on Wednesday morning, they were surprised to find their building missing.

The Jiangsu Province post office was completely demolished - by accident, according to officials - with only a pile of mail and office furniture left behind, people.com.cn reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, some motorbikes at the post office and a few bags of mail, however, were saved by the local demolition team, who had removed the belongings prior to tearing down the building.

Gao Qing, the head of the post office told the news portal that according to a local construction plan, the post office was slated for demolition before July. But since the post office and the demolish team hadn't reached an agreement on compensation and relocation, the team had no right to tear it down, he said.

Local officials said they okayed the team to tear down the post office, but never allowed them to go ahead without permission. They said that the demolition team misunderstood the order.

The case went viral as netizens described the demolition as outrageous, refuting the explanation of officials as acceptable.