SEEKING JUSTICE: Kneeling parents, many of them sobbing and clutching pictures of their children who died when their school collapsed in last month's earthquake, being pulled away by black-suited police from the front of a courthouse in Dujiangyan city yesterday. The protest took place while Mr Li Changchun, the county's fifth-ranked ruler, was touring other parts of the city. -- PHOTOS: AP

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The sobbing parents, many of them clasping pictures of their dead children, had been kneeling in front of a courthouse in Dujiangyan city.

They were seeking to file a lawsuit over a collapsed middle school in Juyuan, near Dujiangyan. Their children and hundreds more died when the school crumbled.

'We want to sue,' some of the parents yelled as black-suited police wearing riot helmets yanked at them.

Reporters at the scene said police forcibly dragged them away.

'The parents were here to give their report to the court,' said a police officer who refused to give his name.

Many parents blame shoddy construction for the deaths, pointing to apartments and government offices that remained standing while nearby schools toppled.

Rubble from the Juyuan Middle School reportedly showed that no steel reinforcing bars had been used in construction, only iron wire.

Access to the ruins of destroyed school sites was also blocked by police yesterday.

'The scene is no longer open. We cannot say why. Please understand,' police at the Juyuan school site said.

Residents said police told them that the restriction was aimed at 'protecting' the site, where distraught parents had come regularly to mourn their children.

'But we think it also is because they don't want people to get too angry and protest,' one resident said.

The protest outside the courthouse took place while Chinese leader Li Changchun, the country's fifth- ranked ruler, was touring other parts of the city.

Xinhua news agency said Mr Li was checking heritage sites damaged during the quake.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said yesterday that the government had been unusually open about allowing journalists to report on the earthquake and its aftermath.

He told a news briefing in Beijing that the 'principle of transparency and openness remains unchanged', and the authorities were 'not trying to block any news or to make things difficult for reporters'.

The death toll of China's worst disaster in three decades was raised yesterday to 69,107, with more than 18,200 still missing.

The quake destroyed 7,000 classrooms, killing an estimated 9,000 children.

Finding out who should take responsibility for the shoddy construction was uppermost in the minds of the grieving parents.

Most of the schools that collapsed were built more than a decade ago. That means that multiple layers of government and private companies were involved in their construction.

A parent familiar with the construction of Xinjian primary school, where more than 400 children died, said the school was built in 1992.

A partnership including the local education bureau, a hotel company and a government construction committee was involved.

'Some of the parents have taken samples (of the rubble), but we know they don't have validity in legal proceedings,' one parent said. 'But the site itself is the best evidence. All that collapsed are the school classrooms.'

Lawyers said they doubted there would be many criminal convictions.

'The legal proceeding could drag for a very long period,' said Mr Pu Zhiqiang, a lawyer in Beijing.

'To affix both criminal and civil compensation responsibilities is very complicated.'

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS, WASHINGTON POST