Associated Press
 
Updated: Fri. Dec. 9 2005 11:21 PM ET

BEIJING — Authorities have surrounded and sealed off a village in southern China where police fatally shot protesters in a dispute over land use this week, villagers said Friday.

Thousands of people took part in Tuesday's demonstration in Dongzhou, a village in Guangdong province, international rights groups said. They were anger over plans to construct a wind power plant on local land.

Police fired into the crowd, killing at least two people, the reports said. Villagers have put the number as high as 10.

State media have made no mention of the violence and both provincial and local governments have repeatedly refused to comment. This is typical in China, where the ruling Communist Party controls the media.

"The riot police are gathered outside our village. We've been surrounded," said one villager reached by phone on Friday.

"Most of the police are armed. We dare not to go out of our home."

She refused to give her name for fear of retribution.

"We are not allowed to buy food outside the village. They asked the nearby villagers not to sell us goods," the woman said, sobbing.

"The government did not give us proper compensation for using our land ... Now they come and shoot us. I don't know what to say."

She added: "I'm scared."

Another villager said authorities were trying to find the leaders of the demonstration.

"Several young men were shot by the police" on Tuesday, said the man, who also refused to give his name. "Their bodies are just lying there."

"Why did they shoot our villagers?" he asked. "They are crazy!"

Rural protests have multiplied in recent months as anger comes to a head over corruption, land seizures and a yawning wealth gap that experts say now threatens social stability.

The government says about 70,000 such conflicts occurred last year, although many more are believed to go unreported.

The clashes have also become increasingly violent, with injuries sustained on both sides and huge amounts of damage done to property as protesters vent their frustration in face of indifferent or bullying authorities.

"These reports of protesters being shot dead are chilling," Catherine Baber, deputy Asia director at Amnesty International, said in a statement Thursday.

"The increasing number of such disputes over land use across rural China, and the use of force to resolve them, suggest an urgent need for the Chinese authorities to focus on developing effective channels for dispute resolution."