Hundreds of people protested today outside a Chinese poultry plant where at least 120 people perished in a fire Monday. The blaze in the country’s northeast marked one of China’s worst industrial disasters. Survivors said they rushed to emergency exits that turned out to be locked; only a single exit was open. More than 300 workers, most of them women, were in the factory at the time. Scores were injured. Local officials said the cause was an excess of ammonia gas. Relatives of the victims blocked traffic, clashed with police and called for answers about the deaths of their loved ones.

Yang Xiuya: “My daughter worked there. After the incident happened, they haven’t given us any explanation. It was time for my daughter to leave work, but the door was locked, so they were all burnt to death. The government isn’t giving us an explanation. We’re not moving until they give us an explanation”

Zhao Zhenchun: “I don’t think safety was being managed properly. They need to work harder on this. This should never happen again. They paid the price with their blood. So many of these big disasters in China are caused by lax supervision.”