Villagers said they began complaining to authorities late last year and organised petitions to various levels of government opposing the construction of the power plant, but they never received any replies.

'We found that [officials] offered to pay us only 10 to 30 per cent of the compensation we are entitled to under national regulations,' said one villager.

He said many families faced losing their main source of income after the sale of the lake.

'Baisha Lake is a salt-water lake that many villagers in Dongzhou and two neighbouring villages have relied on to make a living for generations,' he said. 'We can't live without the lake, [for fish and power generation].

'But now the government has sold the lake and has not paid us a cent in compensation. That's why we wanted justice and tried to take our case to the court to seek compensation.'

Another concern among villagers was that the coal-fired power plant would cause serious pollution and ruin the village's fung shui. They also pointed out that the chimney was too short.

'The chimney is only about 100 metres tall,' the villager said. 'National regulations say it ought to be over 200 metres. It is also ruining the fung shui of the village.'

In May, villagers stepped up their petitions to the authorities but again received little feedback. In June, local officials offered them a one-off lump-sum compensation payment of 600,000 yuan - an amount they promptly rejected.

'What's the point of 600,000 yuan?' the villager said. 'We would have nothing if we lost the lake.

'They were trying to pay us off like alms-giving, but we are not beggars.'

The villagers set up a blockade outside the power-plant site, hoping that would put pressure on authorities to negotiate, and the confrontation escalated in July when three representatives - Huang Xijun , Lin Hanru and Huang Xianyu - were detained by police while trying to deliver a petition. They were released only after villagers blocked the main road to a key tourism site on the Zherang Peninsula for 24 hours.

The lack of trust between villagers and local authorities deepened in September when the village committee's accountant, Huang Jinhe , was found dead at a relative's home.

'Villagers believe Huang was murdered because he refused to falsify accounts for the committee,' another villager said. 'He died a day before the committee said it would make its accounts public.'

Villagers said that after Huang's death, they banded together and started to seek support from villagers in neighbouring Shigongliao, who had faced similar problems over land compensation.

Then on December 5, villagers said, Shanwei police began to search for their leaders using the excuse of looking for drug dealers. They claimed the first one taken away was Li Zelong .

'We knew Li was an addict, but he gave up drugs three years ago,' one villager said. 'We appreciated him as our leader because not only has he come clean, but he is also knowledgeable about the law.'

Some villagers said Li's arrest sparked off the mass protests and the tragic crackdown that followed.

Fearing that more police would come to arrest their representatives, Dongzhou residents, backed by their counterparts from their neighbouring village, stormed a wind-power plant in Shigongliao on December 6 with clubs, pipe bombs and fish bombs - a concoction of fertiliser soaked in kerosene capped in a glass bottle with a fuse and detonator.

The villagers said they seized the power plant because it was situated on the main road leading to Dongzhou.

Villagers said they retreated to a crossroads just outside Dongzhou in the evening when they were confronted by more than 1,000 People's Armed Police officers.

A witness who did not join the protest said police initially tried to disperse the crowd by firing tear gas, but the situation soon turned chaotic, with some protesters shouting that they had been shot by real bullets.

'Some villagers then threw fire bombs at the police,' the witness said. 'But I don't think the villagers were actually shot at that time.

'I fear the chaos was started by bad guys who wanted to see things turn violent.'

According to a number of villagers, policemen fired warning shots but the crowd panicked. Shots were fired into the mob, with some witnesses saying they heard fire from automatic rifles.

According to some villagers, a few bodies were abandoned and about two dozens protesters were left unaccounted for after the shooting. Officially, three villagers died and eight were injured 'by accident'.

On Sunday, official media in Guangdong said the commanding officer - who was later identified as Shanwei Public Security Bureau vice-director Wu Sheng - had been detained for mishandling the protest.