The Beijing News newspaper says two traffic inspectors have been injured in central China after being attacked by a mob angered by a road check they say caused a fatal crash.
The disturbance follows four days of unrest over increased bus fares in the south-central province of Hunan. China's state-run Xinhua news agency says order has been restored there.
The Beijing News says Tuesday's riot in Henan province's capital, Zhengzhou, began after inspectors stopped drivers to check whether they had paid mandatory road maintenance fees.
The newspaper says the stops caused a four-car accident in which one person died.
The paper says angry motorists, relatives and others then attacked the inspectors and police were called to stop the disturbance.
Violent protests are increasingly common in rural China, where impoverished villagers say they are tired of government corruption, illegal land seizures and the widening gap between the rich and the poor.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
