Protesting villagers in southern China said Sunday they will march on government offices this week unless the body of a local leader is released and four villagers in police custody are freed.

The 13,000 residents of Wukan, in the wealthy province of Guangdong, are in open revolt against officialdom and have driven out local Communist Party leaders who they say have been stealing their land for years.

The villagers appear to be winning support from the public, with the first confirmed protest backing them held in the provincial capital Guangzhou on Sunday. The three demonstrators there were detained by police.

While the Guangzhou protest was relatively small, it is a sign that government efforts to block news of the unrest in Wukan have failed and the villagers are attracting public support.