Video footage shows massive explosion in Tianjin, China

A series of huge explosions shook the northern Chinese city of Tianjin late Wednesday, killing 17 people and injuring more than 300, according to officials and state media.

Several videos of the deadly blast in China have been shared across the Internet soon after the incident occurred at around 11:50 p.m., local time in China.

Citing rescue headquarters, the official Xinhua news agency said 44 people were killed, including 12 firefighters.

As smoke continued to billow into the sky from the site Thursday, local authorities suspended firefighting efforts at the scene because of a lack of information on the “dangerous goods” that were stored at the warehouse, Xinhua reported.

Communist Party newspaper the People’s Daily said 17 people were killed in the explosion in a post on Chinese social network Weibo, adding in a separate post that more remained trapped by a huge fire unleashed by the explosives.

Further blasts were subsequently triggered nearby, Xinhua said.

Massive fireball… dozens have been injured in an explosion in Tianjin, China.

The blast was felt kilometres away, with reports of broken windows and fishtanks. Residents report hearing loud explosions and feeling strong tremors nearby.

The explosion in the port city of Tianjin, in an industrial area some 90 miles southeast of Beijing, left over 400 people hospitalized with burns, cuts and other injuries, the state-run CCTV reported.

Emergency services in the city are reportedly overwhelmed, as hundreds of injured people crowded into hospitals in emotional scenes.

“I first thought it was an quake”, Guan Xiang, who lives 7 km (4 miles) away from the explosion site, told Reuters by telephone.

State media said senior management had been detained by authorities and that President Xi Jinping demanded severe punishment for anyone found responsible for the explosions.

The detailed cause of the blast was not immediately known, Xinhua said.

A blast at an auto parts factory in eastern China killed 75 people a year ago when a room filled with metal dust exploded.

The force of the explosions – which blew walls and windows off apartments and office towers, sending shattered glass and concrete flying – unnerved residents across much of the city of 15 million people.

The fire was brought under control before dawn Thursday but continued to burn, state-run CCTV reported. It is one of China’s more modern cities and is connected to the capital by a high-speed railway line.