KUALA LUMPUR - At least two Malaysian companies with manufacturing units in Vietnam's Binh Duong province were mistakenly targeted when anti-China protests took a violent turn on Tuesday.

Furniture maker Latitude Tree Holdings said Vietnamese rioters broke into its subsidiary Latitude Tree Vietnam Joint Stock Company (LTV), located at the Song Than II Industrial Park, and went on a looting and vandalising rampage.

"The rioters attempted to burn LTV's factory but the fire was put out by LTV's workers," Latitude Tree said on Wednesday, reported The Star Online.

"Some important data, permits, licenses and documents were destroyed or burnt."

The company added that while its production facilities were not badly damaged, it ordered its staff to stop work for safety reasons. Its share prices has dropped on Thursday following the announcement.

Another firm Poh Huat Furniture Industries said its factory buildings in Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces also suffered some damages during the protests, reported The Edge Malaysia.

Front gates were smashed and ground floors of the buildings were ransacked, although its machinery were spared, the company said. It is also closing temporarily for safety reason.

Vietnamese workers in the country's southern industrial zones staged a walk-out on Tuesday in protest against China's deployment of an oil rig in contested waters near the Paracels. The crowd turned aggressive later and started breaking into factory compounds, setting facilities ablaze and in some cases, stealing electronic goods.

Chinese-owned factories were targetted, but some Taiwanese, South Korean, Hong Kong and Malaysian factories also suffered collateral damage.