China says three people have been killed and four others seriously wounded in an apparent suicide bombing, when a woman protesting the government-ordered demolition of her house detonated explosives at a local housing office in southwestern China.

The official Xinhua news agency quotes a local report saying the woman, who died instantly, was attempting to negotiate compensation for the loss of her home in Zhaotong, a city in Yunnan province.

The report quotes a witness as saying the suspected bomber detonated the explosives after officials asked her to sign housing documents.

No other details were immediately reported. But forced relocations by local governments attempting to boost land development have in recent years sparked several high-profile protests, including the 2011 takeover of a village in southern China by irate residents protesting unfair land seizures.

Two former officials in Wukan village were expelled from the Communist party for their alleged roles in those seizures, which turned violent after a protest leader died in police custody.

Separately, two civilians died in a 2011 suicide attack by a jobless man in the eastern city of Fuzhou who complained of losing two homes in recent years to government-ordered demolitions.

Three people in 2010 set themselves on fire in Fuzhou in a separate dispute about a government-ordered house demolition. One died.