China explosions: Dozens killed in Tianjin port blasts

 

 

The massive explosions in China's northern city of Tianjin are now known to have killed at least 50 people.

More than 700 have been injured and hospitals are struggling to cope with the number of casualties.
The blasts, at a warehouse storing toxic chemicals, destroyed tower blocks and burned out thousands of cars. The fireball could be seen from space.
Twelve firefighters are among those who lost their lives; 36 of their colleagues are still missing.
Tianjin is one of China's most important industrial centres, and one of the busiest ports in the world.
President Xi Jinping has promised a thorough investigation into what happened and "transparent information disclosure to the public," Talk911 Nigeria reports.


The first explosion occurred at about 23:30 local time (15:30 GMT) on Wednesday in Tianjin's Binhai New Area, a vast industrial zone which houses car factories, aircraft assembly lines and other manufacturing and research firms.
The blast was followed seconds later by another, more powerful blast, and a series of smaller explosions.
Broken and buckled shipping containers litter the site and vast areas of the port have been devastated.
Buildings within a 2km radius (1.5 miles) had windows blown out and office blocks were destroyed.
The impact of the blasts could be felt several kilometres away, and was detected by a US Geological Survey monitoring unit in Beijing 160km (100 miles) away.