Beijing - Up to 2,000 residents rallied against rumoured plans to relocate a north-western Chinese city devastated by the Sichuan earthquake, with some protestors smashing windows and attacking government cars, reports said on Tuesday.

The crowd had grown since early Monday in response to rumours that the local branch of China's ruling Communist Party had decided to relocate the quake-hit city of Longnan in Gansu province, the influential Caijing magazine said.

The official Xinhua news agency said the protest was "related to house demolition."

The agency quoted Huang Huaming, an official with the Longnan city government, as saying the protestors had attacked a compound of government buildings, and "smashed windows and cars".

The protestors had "left the site early Tuesday morning," it said without elaborating.

Residents who posted reports online said most neighbors and local officials opposed moving the city.

Caijing said officials had made no formal announcement on the relocation, but other reports said the government had been considering moving Longnan to a safer site since 1985.

Some 80,000 people died in the May 12 Sichuan earthquake, including 275 in Longnan, where about 6,000 were injured and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed.

Since the earthquake, the Longnan area has been hit by several major aftershocks and torrential rain that caused flash floods and landslides. (dpa)