Mother of twin girls killed after school collapse during May 12 quake, weeps while holding  picture of her children in Juyuan, 03 Jun 2008

More than 100 parents of children killed in China's massive earthquake have tried to file a lawsuit over the poor construction of a school that collapsed during the quake.

But Chinese police dragged some of the parents away as they rallied Tuesday, outside a courthouse in the resort city of Dujiangyan, in Sichuan province as they attempted to file the suit.

The parents blame the local government for shoddy construction of a middle school building in nearby Juyuan, which crumbled during the May 12 quake, killing at least 270 students.
 
Bereaved parents have been holding protests in areas throughout the earthquake-hit region since Sunday, when China marked Children's Day.

Officials say more than 7,000 schools collapsed in the quake.

In the town of Wufu, parents kept an overnight vigil demanding that government officials explain why the local school building collapsed, killing about 130 students, while most other buildings around it withstood the quake.

Many Chinese suspect that corrupt officials ignored construction standards for the schools that collapsed during the 7.9 magnitude quake.

Officials say more than 69,000 people were killed in the earthquake and some 20,000 are still missing.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.