Sichuan tightens security to prevent relatives protesting

The authorities in Sichuan have tightened security across quake-ravaged areas ahead of a series of official events marking the first anniversary of the disaster today.

The increased security comes amid reports of planned protests by parents who lost their children.

Yingxiu , the epicentre of the May 12 earthquake, has been cordoned off ahead of an official memorial ceremony today, with the only expressway leading to the town closed for the past few days.

President Hu Jintao and Vice-Premier Li Keqiang are expected to attend the ceremony along with other mainland leaders and foreign diplomats.

The ceremony at Yingxiu, which was almost flattened during the magnitude 8 quake last year, would be broadcast live on state television and major news portals this afternoon, Xinhua said.

The announcement came after days of rampant speculation about the main site of the official memorial events. The ruins of Beichuan Middle School, where more than 1,400 students were killed, and its new site in neighbouring An county had both been rumoured to be the possible site of the main event.

But the South China Morning Post has reported that dozens of parents in Beichuan and Dujiangyan, whose children were killed due to poorly constructed schools, planned to stage a hunger strike and sit-in today after Beijing's denial of the existence of poorly constructed 'tofu buildings'.