People stand in front of a train at the railway station in Xixia county, central Henan province, Feb 2, 2015. [Photo/People.cn]

Police arrested 6 people in Xixia county, central Henan province, for blocking tracks and stopping a train in their dispute with a local property developer, China News Service reported Tuesday.

As many as 28 local citizens stopped a train leaving Xixia railway station on Monday morning before the government persuaded them to back off, according to a statement from Xixia Publicity Bureau.

The citizens stopped the train to get the government's attention on their dispute with a local property developer, who failed to deliver apartments as promised after receiving their money.

The government said the developer's building of the apartments is illegal, as is accepting the money and they are investigating the issue.

A man who participated in stopping the train said they had sought to solve the dispute in a legal way by filing a petition with the government. But they ended up being beaten and locked up.

He said they had no other options to get back their "life savings in money" and had to choose a radical way.

According to Chinese law, a person faces 5 to 10 days of imprisonment for stopping a train illegally.