GUANGZHOU - More than 100 residents of Huazhou in South China's Guangdong province went down on their knees outside the city government building to demand the release of six fellow villagers who were detained following a farmland dispute last month, local media reported on Tuesday.

On April 18, a township government official and a police officer, together with the help of 10 unemployed youths, detained six farmers from Meizikeng village suspected of being involved in a clash with neighboring villagers.

The brawl took place after Meizikeng villagers found their rice fields had been occupied by residents of the neighboring Shiziling village, according to a report in the Southern Rural News.