Explosion rips through chemical plant in eastern China

At least 121 people were killed while another 54 remain unaccounted for in Tianjin, the AP says.

What is known is that the Tianjin warehouse owned by the Rui Hai global Logistics company contained several hundred tons of risky chemicals.

The blasts late on Wednesday originated in a warehouse storing toxic chemicals and some residents expressed concern that the air and water could have been poisoned. In addition, 3,000 cars have been destroyed.

State media on Thursday showed pictures of thousands of dead fish washed up on the shores of a river about 6km from the blast site, though it was unclear whether there was any link to the explosions.

Responding to questions on the death of the fish at a press conference at 4 p.m., Deng Xiaowen, the center’s head, said an investigation would be launched but assured that is was not uncommon for fish to die en masse in local rivers during summer, due to poor water quality.

After what initially appeared to be a slow response to the disaster, China’s Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun has ordered local authorities to release information on a timely basis and be open and transparent.

From pointing out that the warehouse broke the law by being too close to a residential block to noting that the amount of toxic sodium cyanide stored was over what the firm was legally allowed to hold, netizens have poked and prodded.

Sodium cyanide levels at one of these spots were 356 times higher than safety limits.

City officials have repeatedly said contaminants found in the wake of the blasts, including deadly sodium cyanide, pose no risk to the public.

On Friday, the clean-up was complicated by the outbreak of four fires on or near the disaster zone.

News reports have suggested that safety violations and corporate negligence may have played a role in the disaster.

The company had a license to handle risky chemicals, but only since June.

Gao Huaiyou, deputy director of Tianjin’s work safety watchdog, cited major discrepancies between the accounts of company management and customs and damage to the company’s office as reasons they are unable to identify the chemicals.

What’s been the global reaction?

Journalism professor Zhan Jiang from the Beijing Foreign Studies University said social media has placed a huge amount of pressure on the authorities to be more open with information, especially as China has an extremely developed Internet that allows news to spread quickly.

The United Nations’ top expert on human rights and hazardous materials criticised China yesterday for a “tragic” lack of transparency on the Tianjin blasts.