Here at the Hegang mine in Heilongjiang Province, more than a hundred miners died in an underground explosion over the weekend.

No explanation has been provided for the cause of the explosion… so the wives of deceased miners came to find out for themselves. But they were met by police and security guards.

[Widow, Protester]:
"None of the officials have died! All of the dead are the workers! Not one of those officials has died! The officials are all alive! The workers are all dead! Not one of those officials has even been down into that mine!"

The women say they haven’t been able to contact officials.

[Widow, Protester]: 
"Several days? Several days? Why have their mobile phones been off for several days? Huh? What's the reason behind it? Why haven't they given us answers? When will they respond to us and tell us what happened?"   

The ordeal hasn’t been easy for them at all.

[Widow, Protester]: 
"We're always waiting. This morning I got up so early and I can't sleep a wink anyway. Us family members can only sit around and wait. The children are crying and we don't even know who we can ask! We want to know who to ask! And we can't find a single person."

In the first half of this year more than 1,100 people have died in officially recorded coalmine accidents across China.