Local police in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, insisted Wednesday that the death of a former village chief who had petitioned authorities over a land acquisition dispute was caused by a traffic accident, a claim that has drawn skepticism.

At a press conference late Wednesday, which was finally convened after being postponed several times, Shen Qiang, deputy director of the Wenzhou Public Security Bureau, said Qian Yunhui, 53, died after being run over by a construction truck Saturday while crossing a road and was not murdered.

However, officials at the press conference failed to answer questions as to why an autopsy is not being conducted.

He said police looked into whether the truck driver Fei Liangyu had previously had a dispute with Qian, and questioned two local residents, Qian Chengyu and Huang Diyan, who earlier claimed to have witnessed the incident.

Shen said both Qian and Huang had not directly witnessed the incident.

Shen said a villager surnamed Wang had invited Qian Yunhui out on the day the incident happened, but had only wanted to discuss village affairs.

The son-in-law of Qian Yunhui was taken away for 23 hours for investigation after the incident, but Shen denied that police had beaten him.

Officials showed pictures of bruises on Qian Yunhui's body at the press conference, which were different from the pictures posted online by Internet users.

"We cannot verify the authenticity of the pictures by Internet users, but our pictures are genuine," Shen said.

In an interview with China Central Television Wednesday, Ye Hanbing, director of the Wenzhou Public Security Bureau, said that police had questioned the truck driver Fei and the truck owner Huang Biao. Neither of them knew Qian and a lie-detector test proved what they said was true.

Qian Chengyu was detained because he assaulted the police along with other villagers and he admitted that he did not see Qian Yunhui being run over by the driver on purpose, saying it was a rumor started by others, according to Ye.

Fei Liangyu, the driver in detention, told CCTV that no one had sent him to kill Qian. Fei said he did not eat breakfast Saturday.