"The villagers will continue to protest until this issue is resolved," a villager in Sanjiao township surnamed Tan told AFP by phone. "Farmland is important to farmers, they need their land."

Another villager who requested anonymity for fear of retribution also vowed to continue fighting for justice.

"A lot of people say this thing is not over...they have been pushed against the wall with no other alternative," the villager said, referring to protest action.

The clashes in Sanjiao erupted on Saturday night due to longstanding anger by local citizens over inadequate compensation the government had paid for farmland that was seized to sell to factories and other investors.

Several villagers told AFP that up to 60 people were injured and at least one person -- a 13-year-old girl -- died when police armed with anti-riot gear indiscriminately attacked villagers protesting on a road.

Some villagers said up to 20,000 villagers had protested while others said there were around 7,000.

The state-run Xinhua news agency issued a brief report on Sunday night saying there were only about 100 protesters and denying allegations of police abuse.

The street battle is the latest in a rising number of clashes between police and farmers over land seizures, an issue the central government has conceded is a growing concern.

It followed a protest in December in Guangdong's Dongzhou village, in which paramilitary forces opened fire on the demonstrators, killing three people according to official accounts, and many more according to some villagers.

In Sanjiao the police, including paramilitary troops, began beating people as soon as they got out of their vehicles, said a man who witnessed the violence from his rooftop.

"They didn't care if you were elderly or young, big or small. They beat whoever they saw. They were like mad dogs," the man, who was too afraid to give his name, said by telephone.

"They used electric batons. They chased people several hundred meters and beat them. People were running every which way. They even chased people up to the third floor of the Sanjiao Hotel and beat them.

"They didn't treat people like human."

The reported death and the number of injured could not be confirmed as local officials refused to comment.

One villager said his friend saw the girl who died being struck twice with an electric baton and lying motionless on the ground for an hour. Authorities later said she died of a heart attack, he said. Her family could not be contacted.

Plainclothes police were now monitoring the deceased girl's home, another villager said.

The Xinhua report denied villagers' accounts of police using tear gas and electronic batons. "No one died in the incident," Xinhua quoted a Zhongshan municipal government spokesman as saying.

Two policemen and three villagers were injured after demonstrators threw rocks and firecrackers at policemen and smashed the windshield and lights of a police car, Xinhua said.

The Zhongshan Daily said Monday that 25 people were detained at the scene and all had been released except for four, who will be held for 15 days.

On Monday police barricaded the village, checking identifications and frisking people entering and leaving. Several Hong Kong journalists were briefly detained.

The Zhongshan city government distributed fliers to residents urging them not to cause any trouble while police tried to find the protest leaders, villagers said.

"The Zhongshan Municipal Public Security Bureau urge the petitioning villagers to be reasonable and calm...and to resolve their reasonable demands through legal means," according to a statement by the Zhongshan government.

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