60 still missing after Tianjin blasts

Dead fish are seen on the banks of Haihe river in Tianjin.

“Cyanide was detected at eight water monitoring spots inside the warning zone, with levels at one spot exceeding limits by 356 times”, a government environmental protection official said.

A sea of dead fish washed up on a section of the Hai River on Thursday, about 3.8 miles (6km) from the scene of the accident sparking public fear that it was caused by a leak of deadly sodium cyanide following the explosion. The official said they would look into the cause of death.

First, however, the government had better come up with some better answers about these fish.

Chinese authorities have said the fish deaths are not linked to the catastrophic explosions at a chemical warehouse, but are dealing with a distrusting community anxious about the release of sodium cyanide. “I assure my prayers for those who lost their lives and for all those persons tried by this disaster”, he said Saturday in remarks to thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

The explosions at a hazardous goods storage facility last week triggered a giant fireball and killed at least 116 people, officials said, with 60 others missing and hundreds more injured.

However, the local environmental monitoring center said Thursday night that no traces of cyanide were found in water samples from the river after testing.

Greenpeace have said that tests around the blast site indicate that water supplies were not severely contaminated with cyanide, but that they did not “disprove the presence of other hazardous chemicals in the water”.

An apartment complex nearby had its walls singed and windows shattered.

Meanwhile, the military has ordered the army and armed police to conduct thorough examinations of their weapon, ammunition, fuel, chemical, explosive and toxic material warehouses, according to the People’s Liberation Army Daily.

Meanwhile, The Beijing News reported that Ruihai global Logistics – the company at the centre of the blasts – had been operating from as early as March a year ago, before it was licensed to do so from the Tianjin Municipal Transport Commission’s port management bureau.

“The reported restrictions on public access to health and safety information and freedom of the press in the aftermath are deeply disturbing, particularly to the extent it risks increasing the number of victims of this disaster”, Buncak added.

A local resident rides on a road covered with foam after a rain in Tianjin, China, 18 August 2015.

China’s State Council, or cabinet, promised it would perform a timely and accurate investigation into the blasts, state news agency Xinhua said, citing a State Council official.