Hong Kong rioters' rampage at Xinhua News Agency's Asia-Pacific Bureau on Saturday has drawn wide criticism as an act that wantonly undermines freedom of the press.

The attack has fed into growing concern about the deliberate suppression of the city's long-cherished freedom of expression and the press sparked by rioters having targeted some media organizations in Hong Kong, as well as many innocent people, who were beaten for holding different opinions from the radicals.

In a new upwelling of violence across the city, rioters targeted the long-established national news agency bureau in downtown Hong Kong's Wan Chai area.

The rioters destroyed the office building's security facilities, set fires in front of the building and threw firebombs into the lobby. They spray-painted insulting messages on the outer walls and smashed the front gate and some of the windows.