Six tourists from the Chinese mainland were detained for beating ground staffers in an airport in Hong Kong after their flight was delayed and caused public anger on early Sunday, Apple Daily reported.

Seven staffers were injured in a brawl involving five passengers while trying to stop another female passenger intending to trespass through the boarding gate. The injured people were taken to hospital.

More than 100 passengers were stranded when the riot broke out at 2:00 am.

The newspaper didn't reveal details about the flight, while a post on Sina Weibo said Hong Kong Airlines staffers didn't take care of stranded passengers as the Beijing-bound flight HX304 was delayed for six hours later than the original take-off time of 8:00 pm.

The post also cited airlines staffers' bad attitude as the reason for the conflict.

"Who do you (mainland people) think you are? This is Hong Kong," the post quoted one staffer as saying.