An official in Taizhou, East China's Jiangsu province, fell on his knees and begged for forgiveness after being surrounded by angry people protesting his use of public funds for a five-star meal on Friday evening.

Zhang Aihua, director of the management committee at Taizhou's Binjiang industrial park, was having dinner with a group of people, when hundreds of residents gathered and surrounded the hotel.

"I did something wrong tonight," Zhang said as he knelt on the dinner table and begged for forgiveness through a microphone. "Please let me go."

Residents living nearby said they saw cars every night coming in and out of the hotel. On Friday evening hundreds of people were summoned to protest after some residents sneaked into the hotel and found that officials were indulging themselves on expensive alcohol and food.

Residents said the drink and food was worth at least 10,000 yuan ($1,618).

The city's government has formed a team to investigate the case and said that their findings will be released to public as soon as possible.