Villagers in Southern China kept up the pressure on Chinese authorities in a fourth?day of protest despite threats by the local acting mayor to “firmly crack down” on troublemakers.

Wukan’s residents have been protesting for months over a land dispute. But demonstrations have grown in recent days following the death in police custody of one villager.

Since Sunday, 600 police have been prevented from entering the village to arrest leaders of the protest movement. No party officials have been seen in the village since December 5 when the village governor was taken hostage for a few hours. About 8,000 villagers held an angry march on Thursday, following the comments made by the acting mayor in Chinese state media, twice as many people as had protested the day before.