A?city mayor in northeastern China's Liaoning Province has been sacked for improperly handling a "kneel down" protest staged by residents on April 13, his supervisor said on Saturday.

Sun Ming, mayor of Zhuanghe, has been ordered to resign, according to a decision by Dalian authorities.

Zhuanghe is a satellite town with a population of about 900,000 under the jurisdiction of Dalian City.

On April 13, hundreds of Zhuanghe's residents went to the city hall demanding subsidies over land acquisitions as well as corruption investigations into local officials.

They traveled to the city hall in an attempt to meet higher-level authorities and ask for help dealing with local leaders who they believed were embezzling public funds, taking bribes and neglecting their duties, news reports said.

Many of them knelt down in front of the city hall for about 30 minutes, which raised public concern and sparked online discussions, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

Some online posters slammed Sun for not responding to villagers.

One villager said no officials would meet them, so they had to go down on their knees in front of the city hall to attract attention.

The Communist Party of China's Dalian Committee and the Dalian government said Sun mishandled the incident and was responsible for the bad effect it caused, according to Xinhua news agency.

Dalian officials said in a statement following a meeting on Saturday that officials "must attach great importance to the reasonable demands of the masses" and "respond with enthusiasm."