Schools house hundreds evacuated after Tianjin blasts

Two huge explosions at an industrial area in the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin have killed at least 44 people and injured close to 400.

The official Xinhua News agency said an initial explosion triggered other blasts at nearby businesses.

Photos also showed the blasts, which took place in an economic development zone near the Tianjin port, incinerated hundreds of new cars in a parking lot and toppled stacks of shipping containers.

Xinhua reported Thursday that nine firefighters were among the dead and dozens more remained unaccounted for in the aftermath of the blasts.

President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang urged local authorities to make “all-out efforts” to save those injured, thoroughly investigate the cause of the blasts and punish those responsible, Xinhua said.

Reports say many of those were wounded by broken glass and stones.

Senior management of Ruihai Logistics, owners of the warehouse where the explosion happened, are now being questioned by the authorities, according to state media.

Tianjin is now being incorporated into the Chinese capital of Beijing, as part of a plan to create a super city of over 130 million people known as Jing-Jin-Ji.

It is not immediately clear whether the 12 firefighters who died were among the 44 confirmed to have been killed.

The late Wednesday blasts, originating at a warehouse for hazardous material, knocked doors off buildings in the area and shattered windows up to several miles away.

More than 60 people are seriously injured and 520 others hospitalised from what is emerging to be among China’s deadliest chemical disasters. A large explosion and fire is the dramatic scene residents saw as the sound of a large explosion prompted them to peer out their windows to see what was happening. “I never thought I’d see such a thing”.

“It was terrifying but also attractive”.

However, “there were signs on Thursday morning that the government was attempting to harness control of public information channels”, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Even China’s National Supercomputer Centre in Tianjin, home to the world’s 24th-fastest supercomputer, the 186,368-core Tianhe-1, felt the impact of the almighty explosion.