TEHRAN — Furious over the unexplained death of a chambermaid, ethnic Kurds in an Iranian provincial capital rioted on Thursday, apparently setting the fire that roared through the hotel where she had worked. Police officers used tear gas to disperse the crowds, according to news accounts, witnesses, and images posted on social media.

The anger, which appeared to have been smoldering for days in the city, Mahabad, spread over the mysterious circumstances surrounding the fate of the chambermaid, Farinaz Khosravani, 25, who on Monday plunged from a fourth-floor window of the city’s only four-star hotel, the Tara, Kurdish news media reported. Mahabad’s population is mostly Kurdish; it is a traditional capital of Iranian Kurdistan.

The protesters suspected foul play in Ms. Khosravani’s death, according to the Rudaw news website, based in the neighboring Kurdish region of Iraq.

Images were posted on Twitter of flames roaring throughout the hotel’s five floors. The presence of hundreds of men outside the hotel, some with raised fists, seemed to indicate that the fire had been set by protesters.