At least 50 dead in Chinese warehouse blasts

TIANJIN, China -- Huge, fiery blasts at a warehouse for hazardous chemicals killed at least 50 people and turned nearby buildings into skeletal shells in the Chinese port of Tianjin, raising questions Thursday about whether the materials had been stored properly.

Hundreds of people were injured in the explosions shortly before midnight Wednesday, which sent out massive fireballs that turned the night sky into day and shattered windows several miles away. Twelve of the dead were from among the more than 1,000 firefighters sent to the mostly industrial zone to fight the ensuing blaze.

The municipal government in Tianjin, the world's 10th largest port and a petrochemical processing hub about 75 miles east of Beijing, said 701 people were injured, including 71 in serious condition. It gave no figure for the missing.

There was no indication of what caused the blasts, and no immediate sign of any toxic cloud in the air as firefighters brought the fire largely under control by morning. The Tianjin government suspended further firefighting to allow a team of chemical experts to survey hazardous materials at the site, assess dangers to the environment and decide how best to proceed.

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

"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 after the blasts. "I've never even thought I'd see such a thing. It was terrifying, but also beautiful."

In a sign of sensitivity over the hazardous materials stored at the warehouse, state broadcaster CCTV went into a live broadcast of a news conference in Tianjin when the head of the municipality's Environmental Protection Bureau chief, Wen Wurui, was speaking. He said there had been no apparent impact on air monitoring stations, but water samples still were being examined.

But when a reporter asked him whether the chemicals at the warehouse had been stored far enough away from residences in the area and Wen seemed at a loss for a response, the broadcaster suddenly cut away from the news conference, only to return to it again later.

Authorities said the blasts started at shipping containers at the warehouse owned by Ruihai Logistics, a company that says it stores hazardous materials including flammable petrochemicals, sodium cyanide and toluene diisocyanate.

The initial blast apparently triggered an even bigger one. The National Earthquake Bureau said the first blast was the equivalent of 3 tons of TNT, and the second 21 tons. The enormous fireballs from the blasts rolled through a nearby parking lot, turning a fleet of 1,000 new cars into scorched metal husks.

As is customary during disasters, Chinese authorities tried to keep a tight control over information. Police kept journalists and bystanders away with a cordon about a mile from the site. On China's popular microblogging platform of Weibo, some users complained their posts about the blasts were deleted, and the number of searchable posts on the disaster fluctuated.