Massive Explosion Giant Fireball Covers City In China

Tianjin authorities said 701 people were injured including 71 in serious condition.

Casualty numbers have been climbing, as rescuers find survivors and victims.

At least 17 of the 50 people confirmed killed were firefighters who came to tackle the initial blaze.

State news agency Xinhua reported that rescue workers were “racing against the clock to save the injured and contain fires”, after the massive blasts.

So far, the death toll has climbed to at least 50 with more than seven hundred admitted to hospital.

The explosions at the port, the world’s 10th largest, were so big they were seen by satellites in space and registered on natural disaster sensors.

Chinese flag, Beijing, China. Scores of nearby buildings have had their windows punched out.

Volkswagen and the aircraft maker Airbus also have manufacturing facilities in the area, but they have reportedly suffered no damage. Others were in their early 20s and 30s.

Several fire trucks had been destroyed and nearby firefighters wept as they worked to extinguish flames, the Beijing News reported.

The Shanghai-listed port said its operations were back to normal and evaluation of damages caused by the accident is under way.

Oil tanker arrivals and departures were also disrupted.

Several John Deere employees were injured, some critically, in an explosion involving a chemical storage facility in Tianjin, China.

Gao Huaiyou, deputy director of Tianjin’s work safety watchdog, told reporters that there were major discrepancies between the accounts of company managers and customs officials.

The company’s website said it was a government-approved firm specialising in handling “dangerous goods”.

Meanwhile Chinese President Xi Jinping demanded severe punishment for anyone found responsible for the blasts.

Industrial accidents are not uncommon in China following three decades of breakneck economic growth.

Twelve of their colleagues are among the dozens of people killed; the factories, warehouses and cars now blackened ruins.

The blasts ripped through an industrial area in Tianjin at 11.30pm on Wednesday (Aug 12).

“In China, many environmental risk assessments become a mere formality”, prominent Chinese environmentalist Massachusetts Jun said in a post on the country’s main social network, Sina Weibo.

State-run CCTV said the two explosions had the force of 3 tons and 21 tons of TNT, shattering windows and knocking observers to the ground.