PROTESTERS have vandalised the Hong Kong office of China’s official Xinhua News Agency for the first time during the months-long anti-Government demonstrations.

Local media showed scenes of the aftermath that included a fire in the lobby of the Xinhua office in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district, with shattered windows and graffiti sprawled over the wall.

Protesters have been targeting Chinese banks and businesses perceived to be linked to mainland China as anger builds up against Beijing, which the protesters accuse of infringing on the freedoms guaranteed when Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997.

Earlier, police fired tear gas and a water cannon in the area after protesters hurled petrol bombs at them in another weekend of chaos.

Streets in the upmarket Causeway Bay shopping area were clouded with tear gas, prompting protesters to flee as riot police marched down the road. Police had warned protesters who occupied the area that they were attending an unauthorised rally.