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A grave disrupts work on a huge building site after a family refused to have it moved.

Builders have had to leave a 33ft mound with the burial plot and headstone on top as the foundations are dug out around it at the site in China.

The 2004 grave is already surrounded by new high-rise residential buildings while the dispute rumbles on in Taiyuan, Shanxi province.

(Image: REUTERS)

The case has echoes of the dispute in Wenling, Zhejiang province, where a couple's house was in the way of a new road.

Planners wanted it demolished so they could build an access road to a new railway station but the family put up a fight before eventually moving.

Recently, laws have been tightened up and it is illegal to demolish property by force without an agreement.

Property owners in China who refuse to move to make way for development are known as ‘Nail Householders’.

That refers to a nail that is not easy to remove from a piece of old wood and cannot be pulled out with a hammer.