An employee from a car dealership drifts a Ferrari on a historic ancient wall, causing damage to the heritage in the capital city of Jiangsu Province.

Luxury car brand Ferrari said an employee from its dealership in Nanjing who drifted a racing car on the city's historic ancient wall didn't get authorization and approval from the company.

It said the Nanjing Kuaiyi Automobile Trading Co planned to hold a car exhibition at the Zhonghua Gate - a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) city gate and castle - to celebrate the brand's entry into China 20 years ago on Monday.

But the night before, an unidentified employee drifted a car worth millions of yuan without permission and left tire marks on the ancient wall, triggering widespread outrage over damage to the heritage in the capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province.

"We will take further measures to ensure that similar cases never take place again," the Italian car maker said in a statement yesterday.

According to a China National Radio report, the expensive racing cars were hoisted onto the wall for the event starting on Sunday. But later, urban management officials in Qinhuai District stopped the activity and ordered the organizers to remove the cars to ensure the historic wall wouldn't be damaged.

Kuaiyi signed a deal with the Zhonghua Gate management administration to hold the ceremony, but didn't inform the Qinhuai District cultural authorities for authorization, the tourist bureau said.

The head of the Zhounghua Gate management administration, Yang Houyin, told China News Service that he never allowed drifting and that "the activity is of small-scale that we usually don't apply to the cultural authorities."

Yang was sacked from his position later yesterday.

The gate management administration was said to have charged 80,000 yuan (US$12,704) for the ceremony, but authorities wouldn't confirm that figure.

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