FCO issues advice following China explosions

This story was originally published on July 29, 2015 at 4:20 p.m. Two massive explosions have rocked the Chinese port city of Tianjin.

Will Ripley and Steven Jiang reported from Tianjin.

At least 50 people, including 12 firefighters, died as a result of the blast, and more than 700 are injured and 71 remain in “serious condition”, according to the BBC.

These dramatic pictures show the devastation wreaked by a huge explosion in a busy Chinese city that killed seven people and injured at least 300. No figure was given for those missing. “Only once I was outside did I realize it was an explosion”.

Today, its colonial past can be seen in the Italian Concession district, an avenue with European-style architecture.

A warehouse belonging to Ruihai Logistics has been identified by the official Xinhua news agency as the site of the explosions late on Wednesday that were so large, they were seen by satellites in space.

“If I don’t come back, my father is your father, and don’t forget to pay your respects to my mother at her grave”, the firefighter said.

It was not clear what caused the blast, but Xinhua described the facility as a storage and distribution centre of containers of risky goods, including chemicals.

People gathered outside one hospital not far from an area of badly damaged buildings, waiting for news of loved ones.

Xinhua said 1,000 firefighters and more than 140 fire engines had struggled to contain the blaze at the warehouse.

“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. Seconds later, a more devastating blast hit with such force that they thought they were experiencing an natural disaster. “It was terrifying, but also lovely”.

State broadcaster CCTV said that President Xi Jinping had urged “all-out efforts to rescue victims and extinguish the fire”.

The second blast, which was equivalent to 21 tonnes of TNT, happened about 30 seconds after the initial explosion. “The most recent disaster of this kind occurred in 2013, when more than 100 people were killed in an explosion at a poultry processing plant”.

Scores of firefighters were already on the scene before the explosion, responding to reports of a fire, and at one city hospital a doctor wept over the remains of a firefighter still in uniform, his skin blackened from smoke, as he was wheeled past, along with two other bodies.

When the blast occurred, Du felt strong jolts and saw a huge column of smoke not far away. Sina Weibo is similar to Twitter.

Phone numbers listed on the firm’s website were disconnected on Thursday and an email to the company went unanswered.

“Vehicle traffic was banned for No. 7 Gate of Tianjin Port”, it said. These records might be used to trace the ownership of Ruihai.

Operations at the port were “basically paralysed” by the blast, the official China Securities Journal reported. It says it handles 1 million tons of cargo annually.

Multiple videos shared on social media show a mushroom cloud erupting into the sky with a quake accompanying the blast.