More than 10 elderly residents of a village in Hunan province were declared to have died and said to have been buried in tombs by local staff to get compensation for the relocation of the tombs in the names of the families of the people.

Local officials in the city of Liuyang told China Daily on Thursday that the owner of the industrial park wanted to use the land and offered the owners of each tomb as much as 4,400 yuan ($705) to move the remains of their relatives to a public cemetery.

Some people in charge of the relocation project made up the death of more than 10 villagers and got the compensation for themselves, Chen Xiaoyu, head of the village committee, said on Thursday. The villagers whose names were used by the scammers are still alive.

Chen said 37,000 yuan in compensation collected by the people who orchestrated the scam was returned to the village committee, which oversaw the transactions.

Liu Jianhui, an official with the township government, said on Thursday that the local government had been investigating for a month and discovered the false tomb reports. However, he declined to reveal the number or identities of people responsible for the scam.