[In pictures] Thousands of dead fish wash up on Tianjin shore

New fires have repeatedly broken out on the site, which is scattered with smouldering chemicals and flammable substances, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Meanwhile, environmental experts said water samples taken from a pool at the blast site contained cyanide exceeding the safety limit by over 800 times.

A puppy recently rescued by soldiers at the site of the Tianjin explosions in China was found unscathed and has become a symbol of hope for the devastated city, according to reports.

A window shattered by the explosion on August. 12th in Tianjin, China.

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

Perhaps this experiment was inspired by the mysterious deaths of thousands of fish earlier this week, which washed up on shore in mass 6km from the Tianjin blast site. “‘If the dead fish are related to the explosion, then this is a regional disaster, ‘ one user wrote on Weibo, ‘The culprits must be sentenced to death, ‘” the Journal reported.

About 700 tons of cyanide was involved in the explosion; when burned or dissolved in water, it becomes hydrogen cyanide, which is extremely poisonous, BBC said.

But concerns about longer-term environmental degradation and the potential impact on human health have grown, particularly after authorities confirmed that more than 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide were stored at the warehouse that blew up.

Chinese workers in protective suits began clearing wreckage on Thursday, including charred auto bodies and crumpled shipping containers, from the site of a chemical warehouse that exploded last week, killing at least 114.

As far back as 2009, Chemical Industry News, a local industry publication, reported that many of China’s chemical warehouses were old and likely to have safety problems, and many others were likely operating without licenses.

At least 114 people were killed and hundreds of others were injured in last week’s explosions, which were so powerful that “cars melted and homes crumbled”.

Chinese authorities are denying any connection between the dead fish and the industrial disaster that has led to public protests, as well as the official censorship of 50 Chinese websites covering the blasts.

Some 40 different kinds of chemical were said to be in the warehouse. The authorities have already said the logistics company that operated the facility broke the law by storing such unsafe materials too close to apartment houses, highways and public buildings.