The riot, which broke out Thursday last week in a disagreement over rent paid by a forestry company in Jiangxi province to farmers for their land, involved almost 200 people and 15 were injured, Xinhua news agency said.

The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, which regularly issues reports on social unrest in China, earlier said two people were killed and hundreds injured in the violence in Daduan town.

It said the riots were triggered when two villagers were killed by employees hired by Lu Hai Forestry Co to guard timber lands in local Tonggu county after it began to suspect locals had been illegally harvesting its timber resources.

But police denied there had been any deaths in the riot, Xinhua said.

The report said around 150 Daduan residents confronted 30 security guards from the company and attacked the offices of the firm.

Police were dispatched and three were injured, Xinhua said, adding that four police cars were overturned.

Authorities were still looking for other security guards but no villagers were wanted, Xinhua said.

'The security guards were vicious - they hit anyone they saw,' Mr Chen Shilin, 57, who suffered three knife wounds on his back, four on his head and a broken rib, told Xinhua.

China sees thousands of such disturbances each year as marginalised segments of society rise up against what they see as the heavy-handed practices of local governments or powerful businesses. -- AFP