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

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.

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.

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

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.

“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.

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.