Huge explosions in China's Tianjin port area kill 44, over 500 injured

Beijing : Huge explosions at a warehouse for dangerous materials in the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin killed at least 44 people, injured hundreds and sent massive fireballs into the night sky, officials and witnesses said Thursday.

Twelve firefighters were among the dead, it said citing rescue officials, adding 520 people had been hospitalised, 66 of them critically injured.

China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, said that at least 17 people were killed and that 32 were in critical condition in hospital. Hundreds of others were taken to hospital. The explosions late Wednesday knocked off doors of buildings in the area and shattered windows up to several kilometers (miles) away.

“I thought it was an earthquake, so I rushed downstairs without my shoes on,” Tianjin resident Zhang Siyu, whose home is several kilometers from the blast site, said in a telephone interview. “Only once I was outside did I realize it was an explosion. There was the huge fireball in the sky with thick clouds. Everybody could see it.”

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Zhang said she could see wounded people weeping. She said she did not see anyone who had been killed, but “I could feel death.”

Police in Tianjin said an initial blast took place at shipping containers in a warehouse for hazardous materials owned by Ruihai Logistics, a company that says it’s properly approved to handle hazardous materials. State media said senior management of the company had been detained by authorities.

It’s part of an industrial park, with some apartment buildings in the vicinity.

The official Xinhua News agency said an initial explosion triggered other blasts at nearby businesses. The National Earthquake Bureau reported two major blasts before midnight, the first with an equivalent of 3 tons of TNT, and the second with the equivalent of 21 tons.

Photos taken by bystanders and circulating on microblogs show a gigantic fireball high in the sky, with a mushroom-cloud. Other photos on state media outlets showed a sea of fire that painted the night sky bright orange, with tall plumes of smoke.

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency smoke and fire rises after an explosion in the Binhai New Area in north China's Tianjin Municipality on Thursday Aug. 13, 2015. Chinese state media reported huge explosions at the Tianjin port late Wednesday. (Photo: AP)

About 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the explosion site is the luxury Fifth Avenue apartment complex on a road strewn with broken glass and pieces of charred metal thrown from explosion. Like surrounding buildings, the Mediterranean style complex had all its windows blown out, and some of its surfaces were scorched.

“It’s lucky no one had moved in,” said a worker on the site, Liu Junwei, 29. “But for us it’s a total loss. Two years hard work down the drain.”

“It had been all quiet, then the sky just lit up brighter than day and it looked like a fireworks show,” said another worker on the site who gave just his surname, Li.

In one neighbourhood about 10 to 20 kilometres (6 to 12 miles) 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.

Security guards and a resident push what appears to be a lifeless body into a hospital in northeastern China’s Tianjin municipality (Photo: AP)

“It was like what we were told a nuclear bomb would be like,” said truck driver Zhao Zhencheng, who spent the night in the cab of his truck. “I’ve never even thought I’d see such a thing. It was terrifying but also beautiful.”

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 fire-fighters had brought the ensuing fire under control, although it was still burning in the early hours of Thursday.

A man gathers burnt metal pieces that residents say flew from the nearby explosion, in the northeastern China’s Tianjin municipality (Photo: AP)

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 1 million tons of cargo annually.

Tianjin, with a population of about 15 million, is about 120 kilometers (75 miles) 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.