Among the penalized officials were the county's Party chief, head and deputy head of the county government, as well as chiefs of the local housing administration, construction, transport and public security departments, according to a spokesman with Fuzhou municipal government.

Zhong Rujiu, the youngest daughter of the family, said in her microblog Sunday her mother and sister were undergoing surgery and three top officials of Fuzhou City had visited them at the hospital with promises of good medical treatment and solutions to all their problems.

Thousands of people had followed Zhong's microblog at sina.com, posting words of sympathy and comfort and urging government actions to prevent such tragedies.

Suicides over property rows are not rare in China.

Last year, a 47-year-old woman died in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, 16 days after she doused body in petrol and set herself alight on the roof of her home as workers had broken in and threatened to demolish the house.

In June 2008, Pan Rong and her husband stood on the roof of their house in Shanghai and threw a Molotov cocktail at an approaching bulldozer.

Pan's efforts to protect her home failed at last when the bulldozer destroyed the walls, forcing the couple away from the house.

In both cases, the local governments insisted that the forced demolitions were lawful.

China's existing demolition regulation took effect in 2001, granting the forced demolition.

The recent tragedy has again sparked an outcry for revisions to demolition rules to better protect private property.

In December 2009, five scholars claimed, in an open letter to the National People's Congress, China's parliament, the current demolition regulation was unconstitutional and violated the Property Rights Law.

A new draft regulation was issued in January, stipulating that Chinese residents whose homes are to be demolished for redevelopment should be paid market prices and can sue over disputes before any demolition.