A protester and a policeman were reportedly killed during rare protests in the southern Syrian town of Sweida.
Crowds angry at deteriorating economic conditions in Syria stormed the governor’s office.
Eyewitnesses say protesters set fire to the building amid gunfire in the majority Druze town.
Previously, around 200 protesters reportedly called for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria is in the throes of a severe economic downturn.
This has led to soaring prices and growing anger against President Assad’s regime in Sweida, which has avoided the worst violence of the Syrian war.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that a policeman was killed when protesters tried to storm the police station.
A protester was shot when security forces opened fire after demonstrators entered the government building, SOHR leader Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP news agency.
“The governor’s office was completely burned down from the inside,” said Rayan Maarouf, civic activist and editor of Suwayda 24, a local website that covers the region.
He told Reuters that several people were injured in the exchange of fire, adding that it was not clear where the shots came from.
Syrian state media said “outlaws” stormed the governor’s office and burned official files and papers.
The Turkey-based opposition Syrian TV channel reported that ‘hundreds’ of demonstrators turned out to demonstrate against deteriorating living conditions, tearing down posters of the president inside and near the building. While calling for the “fall of the regime”.
SOHR reported that “dozens” of demonstrators gathered downtown Sweida “to protest against deteriorating living conditions and the regime’s failure to provide basic services”.
He cited frequent power outages, water cuts, high fuel and food prices and a breakdown in public security as reasons for the protest.
Syria has been at war since President Assad’s forces put down pro-democracy protests in 2011. Hundreds of thousands have died and millions have been displaced.
But Sweida province has been spared the violence seen in other parts of the country thanks to efforts by the Druze sect to avoid being drawn into the war, which mainly pits Sunni rebels against the Assad regime.