Police break up parents' protest in China

DUJIANGYAN, China, June 3 (UPI) -- Chinese police broke up a protest Tuesday by parents whose children died when their schools collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake.

About 10,000 school children are believed to have died in the May 12 quake. On Tuesday, the official death toll was approaching 70,000 with more than 18,000 people listed as missing, The New York Times reported.

More than 100 parents gathered for the protest outside a courthouse in the town of Dujiangyan, where several schools were destroyed by the quake. The demonstration was organized by parents of children who attended Juyuan Middle School, where most of the 900 students were killed.

The demonstrators were surrounded by police and some women were pulled away.

"Because so many police surrounded us, we couldn't do anything, so we went home," one woman, who said her teenage daughter was among the victims, told the Times.

Critics say the schools were shoddily constructed.

Chinese reporters told the Times their news organizations had been ordered to stop coverage of the issue.