Claudia Mo, a pro-democracy legislator in Hong Kong, said protesters who stormed into the Legislative Council building are angry and frustrated with their government.

While Mo did not condone the vandalism, she said she sympathized with protesters.

"All the pictures you are seeing are shocking and they are unexpected, but then I hope the world wouldn't just blame the young. You have to understand their temper, anger and frustration and resentment, hostility in particular against this legislature, which is just a rubber-stamping body. It's a rubber-stamping body because it's being dominated by Beijing minions and they outnumber the Democrats like myself included," she said.

Mo called on the city's embattled Chief Executive Carrie Lam to come out "sincerely and genuinely" to address residents "as soon as possible."