Thousands of residents of a village in southern China that has become a symbol of public fury over official corruption turned out yesterday to mourn a community leader who died in police custody.

The villagers of Wukan, in the wealthy southern province of Guangdong, are in open revolt against officialdom, driving out local Communist leaders who they say have been stealing their land for years.

Authorities vowed this week to crack down on the instigators of the unrest in Wukan, which has for months been the scene of occasionally violent protests over land seizures, a hugely-contentious issue in China.

Anger boiled over with the arrest of five villagers, one of whom died on Sunday in police custody.

Authorities say the 42-year-old man suffered a heart attack, while relatives who saw the body said they believed he had been beaten to death.

Yesterday, thousands of villagers gathered in a central square to pay homage to Xue Jinbo, a father of three who was elected head of a provisional village committee when officials abandoned Wukan because of the protests.

After a mass ceremony, groups of mourners – many of them in tears – bowed down before a large portrait of Mr Xue erected inside a large tent outside the family home.

The villagers paid their respects to gathered relatives.

“Right now we have only one demand, and that is that they return the body of my father. He belongs to us, not to the government,” his adult son Xue Jiandi said.

“I have not seen my father since he died, but my mother and some relatives saw him and from what they said, he was beaten, his fingers were broken, there were marks on his body.”