A Chinese villager has reportedly burned to death after men hired by the government attacked his rural home in an attempt to evict him.

The charred body of Zhang Yimin, a 46-year-old farmer, was found on Monday at his home on the outskirts of Linyi city in Shandong province.

Yang Bingen, Zhang’s brother-in-law, told the Chinese magazine Caixin that witnesses had reported seeing more than 100 government-hired “thugs” arrive near Zhang’s house on Monday morning with bulldozers and excavators.

As they set about demolishing the building, members of the group threw “rocks, pieces of metal and bottles of petrol into the house, trying to force Zhang Jimin out”.

“Soon the house was on fire,” Wang Qinfu, a neighbour, said in an interview with Caixin. “At first it was black smoke and then white smoke. [Eventually] the whole house was on fire and the fire got bigger and bigger.”

Zhang Jihe, a cousin of the victim, claimed the men had “tossed bricks and gasoline-filled bottles” into the farmer’s home.

Another terrible and fatal forced eviction story in Linyi, hometown of @chenguangcheng: http://t.co/HBnCH9okxw — Jojje Olsson (@InBeijingSe) September 16, 2015

“He was burned to death by the thugs after he locked himself in the house,” he was quoted as saying by the Global Times newspaper.

However, Zhang Jiyou, another cousin, told Caixin: “We don’t know whether he had been forced to set himself on fire or it was the demolition team that started the blaze.”

A statement posted on the website of the local government claimed Zhang Jimin had set his own house on fire after buying nine litres of petrol from a nearby petrol station. “The fire was cause by Zhang Jimin, the deceased. Further investigation is underway,” it said. Preliminary investigations had excluded the possibility that others had set the fire deliberately, the statement claimed.

Decades of breakneck urbanisation have forced millions of Chinese from their homes, sometimes violently, as vast tracks of farmland have been transformed into a sea of tower blocks. Heavily indebted local governments often seek to cash in on villagers’ land in order bankroll their operations and services.

“Land redevelopment, at whatever cost – whether for new roads, factories or residential complexes – is seen as the most direct path to visible results” for promotion-seeking officials, Amnesty International claimed in a 2012 report.

Zhang Yiminhad repeatedly refused to accept compensation from authorities, according to Chinese reports.

Gruesome photographs of his disfigured corpse circulated on social media along with other images showing smoke billowing from his home.

Pan Jinhui, the farmer’s widow, claimed she had been attacked near the couple’s home shortly before her husband’s death. “Eight people got out the car, grabbed me by my hair and dragged me to their car. I cried out for help but they said they would kill me if I dared to scream,” she told Caixin.

In a post on social media, Zhang Dezhi, the victim’s nephew, demanded justice for his uncle. “Zhang’s body was in an unbearable condition,” he wrote. “Zhang has two daughters – both minors – and I hope that people can help his family and seek justice for the deceased.”

Last year, a woman from Henan province in central China was jailed for two years for setting up a “fake government” with which she helped villagers fend of the threat of forced evictions.

The incident is not the first time officials in Linyi have been criticised for alleged human rights abuses. Chen Guangcheng, the blind dissident lawyer, fled a village in the same area in 2012 after spending several years under illegal house arrest for denouncing a campaign of forced abortions and sterilisations.

Additional reporting by Luna Lin