VIOLENCE flared again in Hong Kong at the weekend as anti-China protesters went on the rampage, vandalising a Metro station and attacking a shopping mall.

Masked gangs smashed surveillance cameras and poured cooking oil on the floor of the Metro station. They started a fire across a wide street before making their way to the shopping mall.

There, the rioting continued as demonstrators lay a Chinese flag on the floor and took turns at stamping on it. Afterwards, they placed the flag in a digger which was then pushed into a river.

Protesters called for a boycott of pro-Beijing businesses and draped a paper chain of receipts from those outlets across the shopping mall.

They surrounded a man who had objected to them trampling on the Chinese flag, with crowds cheering as the rioters punched and kicked him.

Police were deployed to deal with the violence, using tear gas against the demonstrators as they tried to restore order. They were met with a hail of petrol bombs and the rioting continued into early hours of yesterday.

The protests started in response to the Hong Kong government’s plans to introduce an extradition Bill allowing people suspected of serious crimes to be sent to stand trial in the countries where the offences were allegedly committed.

Anti-China groups, including the right-wing Hong Kong National Party, are behind the protests, which have seen calls for US intervention to “make Hong Kong great again.”

National Party leader Andy Chan is often portrayed in the media as a “pro-democracy campaigner,” but he has a string of terror-related charges against him, including possession of two bows and six arrows as well as bomb-making equipment. He was arrested again last month and charged with rioting and assaulting a police officer.