Like many of her fellow protesters appealing for justice, 40-year-old villager Liu Jifa is devastated by the loss of her son - and the entire hopes of her family for the next generation.
"Where is our hope for the future after losing our children all of a sudden?" asked Ms Liu, who was among those who travelled more than 100km from Shalan township to Ningan city to show their united determination to seek justice over the deaths of their children in Friday's flash floods.

Ms Liu's grief was shared by many other villagers.

"My son was only eight years old, in grade one. He was the entire hope for my husband and me. What shall we do now?" cried Dong Yanjun helplessly.

When the flood hit the Shalan Township Central Elementary School, the only school in town, dozens of pre-school students who did not have class escaped the deadly accident.

"If they were there, the town would be virtually finished as our next generation would be all gone," said Zhang Zuoru, 62, who lost his nine-year-old grandson in the disaster.

"My grandson would not have died so young if they [officials and teachers] had tried their best," he cried.

According to Mr Zhang, his grandson, a second-grader, was locked by his teacher in the classroom along with at least 40 classmates.

"No teacher has died so far. Why? Why did they manage to escape, while most of their students were killed? They were even able to save the lives of their own children before they locked the doors."

Mr Zhang said the tragedy might have been avoided if the authorities had been on alert.

"The chief of a village which is 4km away from us and near the upper reaches of the Shalan river evacuated his villagers, including students. He had made phone calls immediately to our township government trying to warn us to take precautions, but he could not find any officials. The torrents struck our town 20 minutes after he called," he recalled.

He said an old reservoir some 10km from Shalan could be the cause of the flash floods.

"The reservoir was built in the 1960s and since then no major maintenance work has been carried out. I had said so many times to our township officials that it was like a time bomb."

According to the protesters, 10 people representing the villagers have been talking with Ningan city officials for the last two days on how to deal with the aftermath.

"We demanded those township, village and school officials and teachers should take responsibility. And we demand compensation of 400,000 yuan for each kid," said Mr Zhang.

Another villager, surnamed Qiao, said their request was rejected on Saturday and an official told them to make their demands through lawyers.

Thousands of Ningan citizens showed up to the protest to express their sympathy.

But the desperation of the villagers was perhaps best told in the way they approached reporters from Hong Kong. "Please let the people know of what has happened to our children! Please tell them we were wrongly treated," they cried.

"You will report the whole truth to the outside world, right?" said the villagers on their knees.