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The government has confirmed there were about 700 tonnes of the deadly chemical sodium cyanide in a warehouse that blew up on August 12, killing at least 114 and devastating a huge swath of the city.

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

The death toll from the Tianjin warehouse explosions rises to 135 as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the latest data from rescue authorities.

The latest explosion happened less than two weeks after deadly blasts at a chemical storage facility rocked the port city of Tianjin, killing more than 123 people, including firefighters, and injuring hundreds more.

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

The explosion was caused when canisters containing a chemical used to produce nylon burst, the Shandong Fire Control Department said on its official microblog. No fatalities have been reported.

More than a week after two massive explosions at a chemical warehouse tore into the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin, officials are still trying to work out how safe is the city’s air, its earth and its water.

Authorities warned that cyanide levels in the waters around the Tianjin Port explosion site have risen to as much as 356 times acceptable levels although they declared that the city’s drinking water is safe.

“In life, you are not often confronted with these kinds of disasters, whether natural or man-made”, said Ji Tao, a doctor.

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

Initial report suggests that at least nine people were injured in the explosion in the Shandong province city of Zibo, So far no news of any death has been reported from the site, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

An explosion has been reported at a chemical plant in the Chinese province of Shandong, according to media reports.

They also removed toxic chemicals from the soil.

At least 21 firefighters are among the dead, state media reported.

Prosecutors in Tianjin said earlier they were investigating two senior officials from Binhai district on suspicion of corruption, although they did not specify whether the charges were linked to the blasts.