Thousands of villagers in southern China clashed with police during a protest against inadequate compensation for farmland flooded by a dam project, a news report said Wednesday.

Hong Kong’s Mingpao Newspaper reported that about 10,000 villagers repeatedly scrapped with police over a four-day period last week when they tried to petition the local government in Guangxi province’s Yantan Township, and to hold demonstrations near the dam.

Property disputes and illegal land grabs have recently accelerated as China’s economy expands at double-digit rates and farmland is gobbled up for factories, industrial parks and other lucrative developments.