At least seven dead in big China blast

Powerful explosions rocked the Chinese port city of Tianjin on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, officials and state media said.

Reports say the blasts occurred in a warehouse storing “dangerous and chemical goods” in Tianjin’s Binhai development zone, with a shipment of explosives being stored at the facility said to be behind the blasts. The explosion critically injured 32 and left almost 250 people hospitalized.

“I felt the first explosion although it was lighter; I didn’t think too much of it, only thought something fell”.

The cause of the explosion is still unknown.

“I heard the first explosion and everyone went outside, then there was a series of more explosions, windows shattered and a lot of people who were inside were hurt and came running out, bleeding”, he told AFP.

The state-run Beijing News reported that 300 to 400 people had been admitted to hospitals.

The ensuing fire was mostly under control by morning, and the Tianjin local government said further firefighting was suspended on orders of the central government so that a team of chemical experts can assess hazardous materials on site, dangers to the environment and how best to proceed with putting out the rest of the fire. Police kept journalists and bystanders away with a cordon about 1 or 2 kilometers (about a mile) from the site. An explosion happened after they arrived and it damaged buildings and infrastructure. Xinhua quoted the head of a nearby hospital saying that it had more than 50 patients, including from broken glass, and more on the way.

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

CCTV said on its website about 100 fire trucks had been sent to the scene.

Tianjin is a major port city southeast of Beijing in the country’s north.

China has a dismal industrial safety record as some owners evade regulations to save money and pay off corrupt officials to look the other way.