The death toll in twin warehouse blasts in China rose to at least 44 people Thursday, including 12 firefighters, state media reported.
China’s Xinhua news agency said the two massive explosions that ripped through a warehouse facility in one of the world’s busiest ports in the city of Tianjin injured up to 520 people. Some 66 people were hospitalized in critical condition.
Tianjin is located about 90 miles southeast of Beijing.
Residents posted photos of blown out windows and doors on social media. And videos posted the night before showed a huge fire ball surging into the sky and individual explosions like fireworks going off around it.
General view of the extent of destruction (epa)
“Tianjin looks like the end of the world has come this morning,” resident Wang Kun said Thursday. “It’s like what you see in Hollywood blockbusters,” he said.
A Weibo user with the name Dawanzi said the area looked like a war zone. “The explosions, the putrid air, dead bodies everywhere, people running around and crying.” Sina Weibo is similar to Twitter.
The scale of the destruction in the area immediately around the blast sites and the size of the fire lead many on Weibo to doubt the death toll would stop at 44.
People as far away as Beijing also began to don face masks in case the explosion released toxic chemicals into the air.
The first blast, which occurred around 11:30 p.m. local time Wednesday night, was equivalent to that caused by 3 tons of TNT.
Damaged cars are seen at the site of a series of explosions in the Chiese port city of Tianjin on Aug.13, 2015. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
The second explosion, triggered by the first fire, had the blast power equivalent to 21 tons of the explosive material, the National Earthquake Bureau said.
Executives for Ruihai Logistics, the company which owns the warehouse where the inferno originated, were arrested, police said.
The website for Ruihai Logistics said the company is approved to handle hazardous materials.
China’s President Xi Jinping demanded severe punishment for anyone found responsible for the blast.
Chinese 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 and authorities announced they suspended further efforts to douse the blaze because they had not been given clear information as to the nature of the potentially hazardous materials being stored in the warehouses.
Several buildings were destroyed in the blasts, and more than 1,000 new cars were left charred in a nearby parking lot, the Beijing News said.
Accidents of this nature are not uncommon in China’s rapidly expanding cities, where residential areas bump up against industrial zones.
Tianjin is currently being incorporated into the Chinese capital of Beijing, as part of a plan to create a super city of over 130 million people known as Jing-Jin-Ji.
A spokesman for Tianjin’s port said it was operating normally, despite the fire.
