Chinese parents whose children died in a devastating Sichuan earthquake in 2008 said they were barred from visiting the site on the 13th anniversary of the disaster.

Lu Biyu, whose son was killed when the Dujiangyan Juyuan High School collapsed, told Radio Television Hong Kong on Tuesday that police blocked her and other parents from going to the site in the morning.

A sign that read “COVID-19 pandemic” had been put up along the road and police officers would not let them pass, Lu said.

Some parents left behind flowers and photos of their dead children on the roadside, she said.

Almost 70,000 people were killed and 17,000 went missing in one of China’s deadliest earthquakes, which occurred in southwestern Sichuan province. More than 7.78 million houses gave way. Poor building quality was blamed for the many deaths.

At the school alone, more than 200 lives were lost. Lu said she would continue to pursue justice for her son, although she had been arrested and detained more than 50 times for the cause.

Meanwhile, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian on Tuesday thanked Taiwan’s help in the disaster and invited the Taiwanese public to visit Sichuan to see its “blooming villages and economy.”

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