As many as 1,000 protestors took to the streets in northwestern China after police officers allegedly beat a cyclist for running a red light, state media reported Thursday.
The angry mob in Huining county, Gansu province, overturned a police car late Tuesday before around 100 backup police arrived, the Global Times daily newspaper said, citing witnesses.
Ten police officers and government officials were injured as the crowd threw bricks at them, according to a statement posted on the local government's website Wednesday.
Around 200 protestors then moved to surround government buildings and did not disperse until midnight, the statement said.
Witnesses said the protest was triggered by some traffic officers beating a 19-year-old man after he failed to stop at a red light, the Global Times said.
Local officials said there were two traffic police officers and three traffic assistants involved in the quarrel that then escalated into a "physical conflict", it added.
The government statement said the traffic assistants would be fired, but did not mention how the police officers would be dealt with.
Local residents said the confrontation reflected people's long-time resentment of heavy-handed policing in the county, said the Global Times.
"I know they were enforcing the law, but they were rough in the way they did it, which made them look like predators," said a woman surnamed Li, who said she saw the beating of the cyclist, according to the report.
Allegations of police brutality are frequently made in China. Two human rights lawyers were this month allegedly violently attacked by officers in Chongqing municipality in the nation's southwest.
Spontaneous riots are also frequent, as this week in east China's Nanjing city when clashes took place at a university after security guards sought to stop a group of students from peddling products.
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