At Least 7 Dead In China Port Explosions

Between 300 and 400 injured people had arrived at a single hospital, according to the Beijing News, which also cited a worker at another health facility saying there were too many new patients to count.

The blasts, originating at a warehouse for hazardous material, turned buildings in the immediate vicinity into charred, skeletal shells while shattering windows up to several kilometers (miles) away.

“An explosion ripped through a warehouse storing “dangerous goods” in north China’s Tianjin City late Wednesday night”, Xinhua said, indicating the blast occurred around 11:30 pm (1630 GMT).

Xinhua said an initial explosion triggered other blasts.

The explosion erupted at a container port where flammable material was being stored, reported CCTV, China’s state-owned broadcaster.

Central Television said on its website no deaths had been reported.

Photos apparently taken by bystanders and circulating online on microblogs show a very big fireball high in the sky, with a mushroom-cloud.

At least two firefighters are reported missing. It said an unspecified number of injured people have been sent to hospital. Unconvinced, some residents left the city, leaving behind homes with shattered windows, caved-in roofs, the constant blare of sirens, and, in some cases, no power or water. “The second explosion was so powerful that I felt the entire 16-floor-building was shaking”, said Liu Yue, 25, who lives near the explosion site in Tianjin.

Tianjin is a city of about 15 million people in northeast China, about 100 miles outside Beijing. (2) Residents stand in the street following the explosion at Binhai new district in Tianjin.