The incident happened at Asurali under the jurisdiction of Dhamnghar police station.
Unidentified people torched a truck and damaged four other vehicles after they found that cattle were being allegedly smuggled in the vehicles in Odisha's Bhadrak district, police said.
The incident happened at Asurali under the jurisdiction of Dhamnghar police station Sunday, sparking tension in the area for sometime, said Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Manoranjan Samal.
He said that seven trucks were carrying cattle from Pandarabatia under Dhamnghar police station limit to Kolkata.
Receiving the information, a group of people stopped the vehicles and unloaded the cattle. They found four animals dead, the SDPO said.
The angry crowd then set the truck, in which the dead cattle were found, on fire and damaged four other vehicles.
Adequate police personnel were deployed in the area in order to keep the situation under control, he said.
The locals also resorted to road blockade protesting cattle smuggling.
Despite restrictions on cattle smuggling, illegal activities are still rampant in the district creating law and order problems at times, locals alleged.