Huge blasts at Chinese port kill 44, firefighters missing

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Last edited Thu Aug 13, 2015, 08:22 AM - Edit history (1)

http://news.yahoo.com/huge-explosions-chinas-tianjin-port-area-kill-17-020339168.html#

Huge blasts at Chinese port kill 44, firefighters missing
Reuters
By Joseph Campbell and Sui-Lee Wee 2 hours ago

TIANJIN, China (Reuters) - Two huge explosions tore through an industrial area where toxic chemicals and gas were stored in the northeast Chinese port city of Tianjin, killing at least 44 people, including at least a dozen fire fighters, officials and state media said on Thursday.

At least 520 people were injured, more than 60 of them seriously, the Tianjin government said on its Weibo microblog, and the People's Daily newspaper said four fires were still burning.

Wednesday night's blasts, so large that they were seen by satellites in space, sent shockwaves through apartment blocks kilometers away in the port city of 15 million people. Internet videos showed fireballs shooting into the sky and the U.S. Geological Survey registered the blasts as seismic events.

Vast areas of the port - the 10th largest in the world - were devastated, crumpled shipping containers were thrown around like match sticks, hundreds of new cars were torched and port buildings left as burnt-out shells, Reuters witnesses said.


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More:

http://www.france24.com/en/20150812-huge-explosions-rock-chinese-city-tianjin

The magnitude of the first explosion was the equivalent of detonating 3 tonnes of TNT, followed by a second blast equal to 21 tonnes.

Deadly explosions hit northern Chinese city of Tianjin
Latest update : 2015-08-13

Two massive explosions tore through an industrial area of the northeastern Chinese port city of Tianjin late on Wednesday, killing 17 people and injuring as many as 400, state media reported.

Authorities have also reportedly lost contact with 36 firefighters on the scene.

The force of the explosions shocked residents across much of the city of 15 million people, with some posting videos on the Internet that showed giant fireballs shooting into the sky and shockwaves buffeting apartment blocks and cars.

"The fireball was huge, maybe as much as 100 metres tall," said 27-year-old Huang Shiting, who lives close to the site.