``The protesters were complaining that they had lived in brand new apartment blocks for nearly two years without any water or electricity,'' the Information Centre For Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said in a statement.

The families involved in the protest, which was staged on Thursday, had paid for work to be completed on water and electricity in their apartment blocks, but this was never done, it said.

Sporadic protests have been on the rise across China, usually among laid-off workers and pensioners, as government reforms forcing loss-making state-owned enterprises to profit or perish take hold.

Hundreds of firms drowning in red ink have been allowed to go bankrupt, and the remainder are laying off millions of surplus workers to raise efficiency.

The state sector will shed an estimated 11 million urban jobs this year.