SHANTOU, Guangdong - No deaths occurred as villagers in South China's Guangdong province protested a planned power plant over pollution concerns, a local Communist Party of China (CPC) official said Thursday, dismissing online and overseas media reports.

Hundreds of disgruntled villagers from the fishing township of Haimen in the Chaoyang district of the city of Shantou gathered again on Thursday near a toll gate on an expressway to protest for a third day, and police officers were dispatched to maintain order.

Local officials have confirmed that five people were detained by police Wednesday evening for alleged vandalism.

"No one has died since the incident took place," Chen Xinzao, secretary of the CPC Chaoyang District Committee, told Xinhua.

Xinhua reporters did not see clashes between villagers and police at the site Thursday.

"The construction of the new power plant must pass the environmental impact assessment and it must win the approval of Haimen residents," Chen said.

The Shantou city government announced Tuesday evening that the project would be suspended.

The protest was triggered by the Fengsheng Electricity Investment Company's planned expansion of a coal-fired power plant.

Villagers complained that the current power plant had led to a rise in the number of cancer patients, the deterioration of the environment and a drop in fishing hauls.

"The environmental impact assessment on the new plant has yet to be completed, and the feasibility study is still going on. Therefore, the construction of the new plant has not begun, as villagers have said," Kuang Jian, director of the Environmental Monitoring Branch of the Shantou Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, told Xinhua.

Based on tips from local villagers, Xinhua reporters went to the seaside site of the new power plant at noon on Thursday, but did not see any buildings or signs of construction except for a cornerstone.