Facebook pics show teens goofing around in Hong Kong leader's home

Jan 24, 2010, 9:14 GMT

Hong Kong - The office of Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang said Sunday it was investigating pictures on Facebook of teenagers goofing around in Hong Kong's high-security Government House.

The teenagers, said to be related to a housekeeper, were pictured on the social networking site posing for shots in off-limits areas of the Hong Kong leader's official home, including its meeting room.

The images were reproduced by the mass-circulation Apple Daily newspaper and include pictures of the teenagers in the chairs where Tsang himself has posed for pictures with Chinese and world leaders.

The youngsters are seen as Tsang and one of his guests in one of the pictures and in other frames jokingly salute the Hong Kong flag and inspect dignitaries' pictures on the walls of Government House.

Built in 1851 under British colonial rule, Government House is the home of Hong Kong chief executive Tsang and is closed to the public except for on annual open days.

A spokesperson for Tsang's office told government-run radio station RTHK Sunday that the teenagers were family members of a housekeeper who held a barbecue at his quarters.

Tsang had not been aware of the photographs and his office was following up on the discovery to see if any action should be taken, the spokesperson said.