Police in Zhengzhou city are searching for a man who hit 15 people on Tuesday with a van when he tried to stop a home from being dismantled.

Four people died after being rushed to the hospital, the Beijing Times reports.

The driver of the van, Liu Danao, lives in Zhengzhou's Nanliu village. On Tuesday morning, he stopped his van in the middle of a road to prevent the dismantling of vacant village houses, the report says.

Workers at the site said they attempted to persuade Liu to leave, but he started up the vehicle and suddenly drove toward them and the crowd of onlookers. He then abandoned the van and ran away.

The city has set up a special team to deal with the incident.