Li Guixin is demanding the Chinese government compensate him for his smog-stained lungs and provides free masks for the citizens it has failed to protect

Chinese President Xi Jinping (L), reacts to people during an unannounced visit to the trendy Nanluoguxiang street and to an ordinary local resident living nearby in Beijing, China

A man from China's pollution-choked north has become the first person to attempt to sue the government for failing to protect its citizens from the devastating effects of toxic smog.

Li Guixin, from Shijiazhuang, the capital of China's heavily polluted Hebei province, is demanding 10,000 yuan (£980) compensation plus the payment of all legal costs, according to a report in the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily newspaper.

Mr Li, who claims he suffers from a bad cough, also called on the government to provide free facemasks to its people and to subsidise the purchase of air purifiers for Chinese homes.

Within hours of the report's publication Xi Jinping, China's president, was photographed venturing out onto Beijing's smoggy streets without any form of protection in what was interpreted as an attempt to down play the severity of pollution levels.

Mr Xi was mobbed by camera-wielding locals as he chatted with residents in the capital's historic old quarter. "Breathe the same air and share the same fate," the Beijing city government said in a widely shared post on its official Weibo microblog.