Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / Archives for Uncategorized

North Korea leader orders army to be ready for war

by

Kim Jong-un quoted as ordering army units to “enter wartime state” after exchange of artillery shells with South Korea.

S Korea's president held an emergency meeting of her National Security Council and ordered a "stern response" [Reuters]

S Korea’s president held an emergency meeting of her National Security Council and ordered a “stern response” [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his frontline troops to be ready for war, against a backdrop of rising military tensions between his country and South Korea.

The announcement follows an exchange of artillery shells across the two countries’ heavily fortified border.

The Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically in a state of war.

The North’s official KCNA news agency said the move came during an emergency meeting late on Thursday of the powerful Central Military Commission of which Kim is the chairman.

During the meeting, Kim ordered frontline, combined units of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) to “enter a wartime state” from Friday 5pm local time (08:00 GMT).

The troops should be “fully battle ready to launch surprise operations” while the entire frontline should be placed in a “semi-war state,” KCNA quoted him as saying.

The CMC meeting came hours after the two Koreas traded artillery fire on Thursday, leaving no apparent casualties but pushing already elevated cross-border tensions to dangerously high levels.

The KPA followed up with an ultimatum sent via military hotline that gave the South 48 hours to dismantle loudspeakers blasting propaganda messages across the border or face further military action.

The ultimatum expires on Saturday at 5pm.

The 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, left the Korean Peninsula technically in a state of war [AP]

The South’s defence ministry dismissed the threat and said the broadcasts would continue.

The CMC backed the army’s ultimatum and also ratified plans for “a retaliatory strike and counterattack on the whole length of the front”, KCNA said.

There was no immediate response from South Korea, but the unification ministry announced it was restricting access to the North-South’s joint industrial zone at Kaesong.

Only South Koreans with direct business interests in Kaesong – which lies 10km over the border inside North Korea – would be allowed to travel there, a ministry spokesman said.

The Kaesong industrial estate hosts about 120 South Korean firms employing up to 53,000 North Korean workers and is a vital source of hard currency for the North.

Restricting access will probably be seen as a thinly veiled threat by South Korea to shut the complex down completely if the situation at the border escalates further.

Thursday’s artillery exchange in a western quarter of the border came amid heightened tensions following mine blasts that maimed two members of a South Korean border patrol earlier this month and the launch this week of a major South Korea-US military exercise that angered North Korea.

South Korea said the mines were placed by the North and responded by resuming propaganda broadcasts across the border, using loudspeakers that had remained silent for more than a decade.

The South Korean military said the North side fired first on Thursday and that it retaliated with dozens of 155mm howitzer gun rounds.

South Korean troops were placed on maximum alert, while President Park Geun-hye chaired an emergency meeting of her National Security Council and ordered a “stern response” to any further provocations.

The CMC meeting in Pyongyang insisted that the situation would only de-escalate if South Korea turned off the propaganda loudspeakers.

The US and UN both said they were following the situation on the Korean peninsula with deep concern.

The US State Department urged North Korea to avoid provoking any further escalation and said it remained “steadfast” in its commitment to defending ally South Korea.

Dozens of people on the South Korean side of the border were evacuated to underground bunkers when the North’s shell fell [AP]

Fatal shooting of black teen in US city sparks protests

by

Crowds come out on streets of St Luis in Missouri state against killing of 18-year-old teenager by white policeman.

Arrests were made during the protests that followed the fatal shooting [Reuters]

Arrests were made during the protests that followed the fatal shooting [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Police in the US state of Missouri have fatally shot a black teenager, who they say pointed a gun at them, and later faced angry crowds, reigniting racial tensions in the country.

Sam Dotson, the police chief of the city of St Louis, said the shooting took place on Wednesday when young black men ran out of the back door of a house where two officers were carrying out a search warrant.

Officers ordered the pair to stop in an alley behind the house. One suspect pointed a gun at officers who then fired four times, killing him, Dotson said.

“Detectives were looking for guns, looking for violent felons, looking for people that have been committing crimes in the neighbourhood,” he said.

Police identified the slain suspect as Mansur Ball-Bey, 18. The second teenager fled.

Both officers, who are white, were unharmed, police said, adding that they were on administrative leave.

Following the incident, crowds gathered at a nearby intersection shortly after the shooting and then again in the evening. Three people were arrested for blocking traffic, police said.

NBC television affiliate KSDK reported that some in the crowd threw rocks at officers, who responded with what appeared to be tear gas.

Unrest after shooting

St. Louis television station Fox 2 showed officers in riot gear lined up across a street, a burning mattress and clouds of smoke or tear gas.

St. Louis Alderman, Antonio French, posted on Twitter that a vacant house and a car were set on fire, and that firefighters were working under heavy police guard.

Dotson the police chief told reporters that Ball-Bey’s gun was stolen and said officers recovered crack cocaine at the scene.

The city police said the officers involved in the shooting were white, aged 33 and 29, each with about seven years on the force.

The shooting came 10 days after the city was flooded with protesters marking the anniversary of the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer on August 9 last year in Ferguson, not far from St Louis.

Brown’s death helped spark a nationwide movement against what protesters say is police violence against minorities.

Wednesday’s shooting also came as activists were in the area to mark the anniversary of the police shooting of another black man in St. Louis, Kajieme Powell. Police say officers shot Powell when he approached them with a knife.

UN peacekeepers face new sex abuse allegations in CAR

by

Three more accusations levelled against peacekeepers in CAR a week after Ban Ki-Moon asked UN head of mission to resign.

UN peacekeepers earlier had been accused of sexually abusing children in Bangui and in the eastern part of the country [AP]

UN peacekeepers earlier had been accused of sexually abusing children in Bangui and in the eastern part of the country [AP]

by Al Jazeera

Three young females, including a minor, have accused United Nations peacekeepers of raping them in the Central African Republic, the global body has announced, taking the number of allegations to 13 since the UN stationed troops in the country in September.

The announcement on Wednesday comes a week after Ban Ki-Moon, UN secretary-general, removed the head of the peacekeeping mission in CAR over the handling of a series of similar allegations in the conflict-wracked country.

Vannina Maestracci, spokesperson for the secretary general’s office, told reporters that families of the three young females made the allegations on August 12 and that the alleged rapes occurred in “recent weeks”.

Similarly, a statement from the peacekeeping mission said UN headquarters was “immediately informed” of the allegations and that it was collecting “all available evidence”.

The alleged rapes occurred in the city of Bambari, where peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are stationed.

The CAR is still battling daily clashes between rival militias in the country’s hinterlands [Reuters]

Congo’s UN ambassador, Ignace Gata Mavita wa Lufuta, told The Associated Press news agency that three members of Congo’s military have been accused and that he had just met with UN officials about looking into the allegations.

He didn’t address the allegations but said it’s “not normal” that vulnerable people would be victims of those meant to protect them.

Congo’s troops serve in no other UN peacekeeping missions, and its nearly 900 troops were accepted into the mission in CAR at a time when few countries were volunteering people to serve in the chaotic country, which has been ripped by unprecedented violence between Christians and Muslims.

Last August, the New York-based Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict said Congo’s troops, which were already in the country as part of an African Union mission, should be excluded from the UN mission.

The advocacy network pointed out that Congo’s armed forces have been noted in Ban’s annual report on conflict-related sexual violence. They were included again this year.

Last week, following the removal of the head of the CAR peacekeeping mission, Ban met with the Security Council and the heads of all UN peacekeeping missions to discuss new measures to swiftly investigate alleged sexual assaults and hold peacekeepers accountable.

Ban’s actions came after Amnesty International accused UN peacekeepers in CAR’s capital this month of indiscriminately killing a 16-year-old boy and his father and, in a separate incident, of raping a 12-year-old girl.

UN peacekeepers earlier had been accused of sexually abusing children in Bangui and in the eastern part of the country.

The peacekeeping mission is also being investigated over how it handled child sexual abuse allegations against French troops last year, in which children as young as nine said they had traded sex for food.

Maestracci, the UN spokeswoman, said that so far, the peacekeeping mission has received 13 allegations of possible sexual abuse and exploitation since UN troops began arriving last year.

Under an agreement with the UN, countries have the sole responsibility to prosecute their troops taking part in peacekeeping missions, but if they take no action to investigate, the UN can step in. Even then, the UN only has the power to repatriate troops and suspend payments to countries for troops who are accused.

In at least one case of alleged sexual abuse or exploitation by a peacekeeper in CAR, a country repatriated its accused citizen, the UN said.

Around 2.7 million people, more than half the population, are still in need of aid, while 1.5 million people were affected by food insecurity [AFP]

Thai police: Bangkok bomber did not act alone

by

Erawan shrine reopens as police release sketch of man suspected to be behind attack that left 20 people dead.

Bangkokbombing

by Al Jazeera

Thai police have released a sketch of the main suspect in a deadly bombing that killed at least 20 people in the capital Bangkok, as the national police chief said the attack was carried out by “a network”.

Police chief Somyot Poompanmoung said on Wednesday that the attacker did not carry out Monday’s attack by himself, without elaborating further.

He made the comment as he headed into a meeting of national police commanders, adding that he was carrying orders from the prime minister who “is worried about the security of people and tourists in Thailand”.

“He didn’t do it alone, for sure. It’s a network,” Poompanmoung told the Associated Press.

Police say two other suspects have been identified in CCTV footage of the blast site.

Officials various times said that they did not rule out any group, including elements opposed to the military government, though they said it did not match the tactics of Muslim fighters in the south or “red shirt” supporters of the previous administration.

Foreigners dead

The sketch released shows a fair-skinned man with thick, medium-length black hair, a wispy beard and black glasses. It is unclear whether the man was Thai or a foreigner.

The attack left at least 11 foreigners dead, with Chinese, Singaporeans, Indonesians and a family from Malaysia among the victims.

More than 100 other people were wounded by the blast that shredded bodies at one of the city’s busiest intersections.

On Tuesday, the police released grainy closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of a young man wearing a yellow t-shirt.

Police say the sketch could help locate the yellow-shirted man seen in the CCTV footage. A 1 million baht ($28,000) reward has been offered to anyone who can give police information leading to his arrest.

Police also said they would take the sketch to a court and ask that an arrest warrant be issued for a man matching the description.

Shrine reopened

On Wednesday, Buddhist monks led prayers for the reopening of a Bangkok shrine located in busy Ratchaprasong commercial district.

A small explosion on Tuesday by a bridge at the city’s Chao Praya River has been tied to Monday’s bomb.

Colonel Kamthorn Ouicharoen, of the Thai bomb squad police, confirmed the bridge bomb was the same type as the one detonated at the Erawan shrine.

Thailand has experienced a near-decade long political crisis that has seen endless rounds of street violence, but never anything on the scale of Monday’s bomb.

Al Jazeera’s Scott Heidler, reporting from Bangkok, said the bombings came just as tourism is rebounding in Thailand.

“The arrival numbers of the all-important Chinese market doubled for the first half of this year compared to the same period last year,” he said.

About 10,000 additional security forces have been deployed in Bangkok after the bombing, reassuring some tourists.

“At first I was shocked to hear about the blast. After assessing the situation, I think Bangkok might be safer after the bomb,” one Chinese tourist told Al Jazeera.

Sri Lanka PM claims victory over ex-president in polls

by

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s attempt to stage a comeback in parliamentary elections has ended in defeat.

Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said the vote had been one of the most peaceful in Sri Lanka's history [AFP]

Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said the vote had been one of the most peaceful in Sri Lanka’s history [AFP]

by Al Jazeera

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s attempt to stage a comeback in Sri Lanka’s general election has ended in defeat as results showed the alliance that toppled him making decisive gains.

The ruling United National Party (UNP) was likely to fall just short of an outright majority but Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe should still command enough support to form a stable government.

“I offer my grateful thanks to all parties and individuals who worked untiringly during the election period to ensure victory for the people,” Wickremesinghe, 66, said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Let us together build a civilised society, build a consensual government and create a new country.”

If confirmed, the outcome would be a triumph for President Maithripala Sirisena, who beat his former ally Rajapaksa in a presidential vote in January and called early parliamentary polls to secure a stronger mandate for reforms. Rajapaksa was Sri Lanka’s president for nine years until his January 8 election defeat.

Defeat for Rajapaksa will keep Sri Lanka on a non-aligned foreign policy course and loosen its ties with China, which during his rule pumped billions of dollars into turning the Indian Ocean island into a maritime outpost.

Victory over former mentor

With results from 18 of Sri Lanka’s 22 districts in, Wickremesinghe’s UNP had won about 105 seats in the 225-seat parliament.

A total of 196 seats are up for grabs in multi-member constituencies with a further 29 to be allocated by proportional representation in the 225-seat chamber.

Since his surprise victory over his former mentor, Sirisena has struggled to impose his authority over his United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) party and was powerless to prevent Rajapakse’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), from standing as one of its candidates.

Sirisena threatened to invoke his executive powers to prevent his combative predecessor from becoming prime minister, but Rajapakse was banking on a strong showing to force Sirisena to back down.

Rajapaksa was hailed a warrior king for defeating Tamil Tiger separatists to end a nearly 26-year civil war. But he is accused of using his popularity to take control of parliament, the courts, the armed forces and all government institutions.

He was also accused of widespread human rights abuses and of suppressing freedoms.

Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said the vote had been one of the most peaceful in Sri Lanka’s history. About 70 per cent of the 15 million registered voters voted in Monday’s elections.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said 35 people were arrested countrywide for election law violations.

The mood on the streets was subdued on Tuesday, with celebrations and street processions banned for a week after the polls under Sri Lankan election laws.

Bangkok bomb: Deadly blast rocks Thailand capital

by

blast Thailand

by BBC

Bangkok: A bomb has exploded close to a shrine in the centre of the Thai capital, Bangkok, police say.

Local reports suggest at least 12 people have died and at least 20 more have been injured.

The BBC’s Jonathan Head, who is at the scene, says there is a huge amount of chaos, with body parts scattered everywhere.
The attack took place close to the Erawan Shrine in the capital’s central Chidlom district.

The explosion occurred at about 19:00 local time (12:00 GMT), with police saying it may have been caused by a motorcycle bomb.

‘Burnt motorbikes’

Our correspondent says this a very well known shrine in the centre of Bangkok, next to a five-star hotel.

He says people around the shrine were hit by the full force of the blast.

There are burnt motorbikes on the main road, with paramedics and police trying to take the injured away, he says.

The shrine is to the Hindu god Brahma but is also visited by thousands of Buddhists each day.

National police spokesman Lt Gen Prawut Thavornsiri told Agence France-Presse news agency: “I can confirm it was a bomb, we can’t tell which kind yet, we are checking.”

The explosion was on the Ratchaprasong intersection, which has been the centre of political demonstrations in recent years.

Our correspondent says bomb attacks in Bangkok are extremely rare.

Revealed: Pentagon blocking release of cleared Guantánamo detainees

by

Exclusive reporting by the Guardian reveals that the U.S. government is intentionally “dragging its feet” on allowing Shaker Aamer, others to go home

Demonstrators call for the release of cleared Guantanamo Bay detainee Shaker Aamer. (Photo: Justin Norman/flickr/cc)

Demonstrators call for the release of cleared Guantanamo Bay detainee Shaker Aamer. (Photo: Justin Norman/flickr/cc)

by Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams

The U.S. Pentagon is blocking the release of Guantánamo Bay detainees who have been cleared to return home through diplomatic deals between the U.S. and UK governments, the Guardian revealed on Thursday in an exclusive report.

Among those detainees is Shaker Aamer, a Saudi citizen and UK resident who has been held at the U.S. military base in Cuba for more than 13 years without charge and has twice been cleared for release. In 2010, the Pentagon itself participated in a federal review of Aamer’s case, as well as that of another detainee, both of whom were deemed to pose no threat to national security and cleared to go home.

But as one official told the Guardian, the U.S. government’s defense secretaries have been playing “foot-dragging and process games” to keep the diplomatic deals that secured his release from going through.

The Guardian reports:

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter, backed by powerful US militaryofficers, have withheld support for sending Aamer back to the UK. The ongoing obstruction has left current and former US officials who consider the detainees a minimal threat seething, as they see it undermining relations with Britain and other foreign partners while subverting from the inside Obama’s long-stifled goal of closing the infamous detention facility.

[….] The transfers have the backing of the US Justice Department, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

But since White House rules depend on full administration consensus, Aamer remains at Guantánamo until Carter and the Pentagon say otherwise.

The Pentagon is also blocking the release of Ahmed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania and Abdul Shalabi of Saudi Arabia. Carter has yet to sign the diplomatic deals already brokered between the U.S. and the men’s home countries which would enable their release.

Aamer’s case has drawn widespread support from human rights groups and peace activists. A campaign for his release, which operates under the banner Save Shaker Aamer, stages regular actions and protests to call attention to his continued illegal detention. According to legal charity Reprieve, which represents Aamer, he has been subject to force-feedings, solitary confinement, and beatings by guards up to eight times a day while in custody at Guantánamo Bay.

Climate change ‘set to fuel global food crisis’

by

Global food shortages to become three times more likely due to climate change, according to report by US and UK experts.

Global food

by Al Jazeera

Global food shortages will become three times more likely as a result of climate change according to a report by a joint US-British taskforce, which warned that the international community needs to be ready to respond to potentially dramatic future rises in prices.

Food shortages, market volatility and price spikes are likely to occur at an exponentially higher rate of every 30 years by 2040, said the Taskforce on Extreme Weather and Global Food System Resilience.

With the world’s population set to rise to nine billion by 2050 from 7.3 billion today, food production will need to increase by more than 60 percent and climate-linked market disruptions could lead to civil unrest, the report, published on Friday, said.

“The climate is changing and weather records are being broken all the time,” said David King, the UK foreign minister’s Special Representative for Climate Change.

“The risks of an event are growing, and it could be unprecedented in scale and extent.”

Globalisation and new technologies have made the world’s food system more efficient but it has also become less resilient to risks, said King.

Some of the major risks include a rapid rise in oil prices fuelling food costs, reduced export capacity in Brazil, the US or the Black Sea region due to infrastructure weakness, and the possible depreciation of the US dollar causing prices for dollar-listed commodities to spike.

Global food production is likely to be most impacted by extreme weather events in North and South America and Asia which produce most of the world’s four major crops – maize, soybean, wheat and rice, the report found.

Such shocks in production or price hikes are likely to hit some of the world’s poorest nations hardest such as import dependent countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the report found.

‘Violence or conflict’

“In fragile political contexts where household food insecurity is high, civil unrest might spill over into violence or conflict,” the report said.

“The Middle East and North Africa region is of particular systemic concern, given its exposure to international price volatility and risk of instability, its vulnerability to import disruption and the potential for interruption of energy exports.”

To ease the pain of increasingly likely shocks, the report urged countries not to impose export restrictions in the event of extreme weather, as Russia did following a poor harvest in 2010.

The researchers said agriculture itself needs to change to respond to global warming as international demand is already growing faster than agricultural yields and climate change will put further pressure on production.

“Increases in productivity, sustainability and resilience to climate change are required,” the report said.

This will require significant investment from the public and private sectors, as well as new cross-sector collaborations.”

China orders evacuations as chemical fears grow

by

Fire re-ignites at site of twin blasts in Tianjin, as death toll rises to 85, with more than 700 wounded.

china

by Al Jazeera

Residents living close to the site of giant explosions in the Chinese port of Tianjin have been evacuated over fears of toxic contamination as new fires ignited.

Armed police were carrying out evacuations within 3km of the blast site on Saturday after highly poisonous sodium cyanide was found, the Beijing News said.

The blaze ignited again at the warehouse where the blasts struck on Wednesday night, with several small blasts heard by reporters from the Xinhua state news agency.

“Out of consideration for toxic substances spreading, the masses nearby have been asked to evacuate,” Xinhua reported.

Authorities announced on Saturday that the death toll has risen to 85, with more than 700 others still being treated in hospitals, including 25 who are in critical condition and 33 who are in serious condition.

A survivor was pulled from a shipping container on Saturday morning, state media reported. His identity was not immediately known. Television video showed the man being carried out on a sketcher by a group of soldiers wearing gas masks.

A team of chemical experts has been called in to the site to test for toxic gases.

Shockwaves from the blasts late on Wednesday were felt by residents in apartment blocks kilometres away in the city of 15 million people.

Furious residents and victims’ relatives railed against authorities outside a news conference on Saturday for keeping them in the dark as criticism over transparency mounted.

Residents and relatives were prevented from entering the press conference and could be heard shouting outside.

“Nobody has told us anything, we’re in the dark, there is no news at all,” screamed one middle-aged woman, as she was dragged away by security personnel.

The man survived for three days in a shipping container following the blasts [Reuters]

China has a patchy industrial safety record and the disaster has raised fears of toxic contamination after officials said they were unable to identify precisely what chemicals were at the site at the time.

Tianjin work safety official Gao Huaiyou listed a host of possible substances at the briefing, adding that the firm’s recent large exports had included sodium bisulfide, magnesium, sodium, potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, and sodium cyanide, among others.

China on Friday defended the work of firefighters who initially hosed water on a blaze in a warehouse storing volatile chemicals, a response foreign experts said could have contributed to the explosions.

The explosions have disrupted the flow of cars, oil, iron ore and other items through the world’s 10th largest port.

The blast sent shipping containers tumbling into one another, leaving them in bent, charred piles.

Rows of new cars, lined up on vast lots for distribution across China, were reduced to blackened carcasses.

Tianjin is the 10th largest port in the world by container volume and the seventh largest in China, according to the World Shipping Council, moving more containers than the ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg and Los Angeles.

It handles vast quantities of metal ore, coal, steel, cars and crude oil.

Authorities have only released limited information about the accident, a criticism often levelled at Chinese officials in the aftermath of disasters, and restricted discussion of it online.

More than 360 social media accounts have been shut down or suspended for “spreading rumours” about the blasts, Xinhua reported citing the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Death toll soars after huge blasts hit China’s Tianjin

by

Explosions in city’s industrial zone kill at least 50 people and injure hundreds more, with 36 firemen reported missing.

The blasts started late on Wednesday after a container of 'hazardous material' exploded in a warehouse in Tianjin [EPA]

The blasts started late on Wednesday after a container of ‘hazardous material’ exploded in a warehouse in Tianjin [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Explosions at a warehouse for dangerous materials in the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin have killed at least 50 people, including at least a dozen firefighters, and injured more than 700 and sent shockwaves through the city.

Chinese state news said the blasts started late on Wednesday after a container of “hazardous material” exploded in a warehouse around midnight local time.

The city government said the death toll from the explosions stood at 50, adding that were 701 hospitalised and 71 seriously injured.

At least 36 firefighters were initially reported missing by the state news agency, Xinhua.

The blasts knocked doors off buildings in the area and shattered windows up to several kilometres away.

There were no indications of what caused the blasts, and no immediate signs of any large release of toxic chemicals into the air.

Beijing News reported on its website that there was some unidentified yellow foam flowing at the site.

Police in Tianjin said an initial blast occurred at shipping containers in a warehouse for hazardous materials owned by Ruihai Logistics, a company that says it is properly approved to handle hazardous materials.

Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown, reporting from Tianjin early on Thursday, said: “Close to the disaster zone, dazed people are wandering about the streets, many carrying what possessions they could grab before fleeing their homes.

“Others are sitting at roadsides, many clearly in shock. Those who can get out are fleeing.

Photos on state media outlets showed a sea of fire that painted Wednesday’s night sky bright orange in Tianjin [Reuters]

“In the distance, smoke is still billowing from the scene of the multiple blasts. Scores of nearby buildings have had their windows punched out.

“The streets are littered with broken glass and stones. The air is acrid. That no one knows what they are breathing is adding to the anxiety here.”

State media said senior management of the company had been detained by authorities, and that President Xi Jinping has demanded severe punishment for anyone found responsible for the explosions.

The official Xinhua news agency said an initial explosion sparked other blasts at nearby businesses.

The National Earthquake Bureau reported two major blasts before midnight, the first was the equivalent of three tonnes of TNT, and the second one was the equivalent of 21 tonnes.

The explosions occurred in a mostly industrial zone, with some apartment buildings in the vicinity.

Buildings of a half-dozen other logistics companies were destroyed in the blasts, and more than 1,000 new Renault cars were left charred in a nearby parking lot, Beijing News said.

Photos taken by bystanders and circulating on microblogs show a huge fireball high in the sky, with a mushroom cloud.

China’s National Earthquake Bureau reported two major blasts in Tianjin’s industrial zone before midnight on Wednesday [Reuters]

Tall plumes of smoke

Other photos on state media outlets showed a sea of fire that painted the night sky bright orange, with tall plumes of smoke.

In one neighbourhood about 10km to 20km from the blast site, some residents were sleeping on the street wearing gas masks, although there was no perceptible problem with the air apart from massive clouds of smoke seen in the distance.

At the nearby Taida Hospital as dawn broke, military medical tents were set up.

Photos circulating online showed patients in bandages and with cuts.

State broadcaster CCTV said six battalions of firefighters had brought the ensuing fire under control, although it was still burning in the early hours of Thursday.

Ruihai Logistics says on its website that it was established in 2011 and is an approved company for handling hazardous materials. It says it handles one million tonnes of cargo annually.

Tianjin, with a population of about 15 million, is about 120km east of Beijing on the Bohai Sea and is one of the country’s major ports.

It is also one of China’s more modern cities and is connected to the capital by a high speed rail line.

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives