Rioters trash the metro station at Causeway Bay in Hong Kong, South China, October 4, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung has confirmed that a rioter arrested last week is a local civil servant.

The employee, who was arrested on October 31 for illegal assembly, worked in the Protocol Division Government Secretariat of Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong-based newspaper Wenweipo reported on Tuesday citing Cheung.

Cheung said he felt sorry for a small number of civil servants in Hong Kong attending illegal demonstrations, noting that civil servants should remain politically neutral, perform their duties faithfully, serve the community and support government policies.

A group of rioters were found blocking the road, vandalizing public facilities and setting fires last Thursday night at Mong Kok.

Previous local reports said that one of the arrested rioters is allegedly a 24-year-old officer from Cheung's office. But Cheung denied the rumor.

Given previous cases in which arrested rioters turned out to be civil servants, Zhu Shihai, a scholar specializing in Hong Kong studies at the Macao University of Science and Technology, suggested there should be a higher standard in regulating civil servants as they represent the government.

Lawrence Tang Fei, a member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday that patriotic education is also needed among civil servants to deal with the problem.

Experts also called for a thorough investigation into the Hong Kong civil service system after five rioters were released by the court Monday because their names were written incorrectly in prosecution documentation.

Zhu noted that, whether Monday's court error was deliberate or not, the person in charge should be severely punished.

The five suspects were arrested again later that day for hiding explosives.