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| Explosions in Chinese city of Tianjin kill at least seven and injure hundreds | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Hundreds of people have been injured and at least seven killed after a series of devastating blasts sent a fireball hundreds of metres into the air at an industrial port in northern China. | Hundreds of people have been injured and at least seven killed after a series of devastating blasts sent a fireball hundreds of metres into the air at an industrial port in northern China. |
| A shipment of “dangerous goods” in a warehouse went up in flames shortly before midnight local time (0500 GMT), state media reported, causing explosions so strong that they shook homes on the other side of the city and sent flaming debris arching over nearby high-rise buildings. | |
| Hundreds of injured people crowded into hospitals, arriving on foot and by car after emergency services were overwhelmed. | |
| Related: Tianjin explosion: social media reacts to China blasts | |
| “When the first explosion happened, it felt like a earthquake,” said Chen Bingzhi, who lives about 4km from the explosion site. “The whole building was shaking. I live on the fifth floor and all the windows are broken.” | |
| She heard screaming, then after the second blast hit ran outside without even stopping to lock her front door. Hundreds of people were milling around, many covered in blood. “Many cars were rushing past us and through their windows I could see injured people sitting or lying inside,” she said. | |
| Three or four hundred people arrived at the Tianjin harbour hospital after at least two devastating blasts, the Beijing News reported, quoting an unnamed medic who works there. Many were also injured by flying glass, and one CCTV video apparently showed an entire glass door being blown in by the force of the explosion. | Three or four hundred people arrived at the Tianjin harbour hospital after at least two devastating blasts, the Beijing News reported, quoting an unnamed medic who works there. Many were also injured by flying glass, and one CCTV video apparently showed an entire glass door being blown in by the force of the explosion. |
| Doctors were called in from leave, and hundreds of people waited to donate blood to the injured, the Beijing News reported. | |
| “The hospital cannot count how many patients we have received – there are too many of them and many of them have burn injuries,” said a doctor at another hospital, who had been called back from a conference in Beijing to treat the injured. | “The hospital cannot count how many patients we have received – there are too many of them and many of them have burn injuries,” said a doctor at another hospital, who had been called back from a conference in Beijing to treat the injured. |
| Firefighting teams sent to battle the blaze had lost contact with at least two people fighting the fire. Six others were being treated for minor injuries, Chinese state TV reported. | Firefighting teams sent to battle the blaze had lost contact with at least two people fighting the fire. Six others were being treated for minor injuries, Chinese state TV reported. |
| The explosion happened just before midnight but triggered secondary explosions and fires in the surrounding area, state television reported on microblogging site, Weibo. | |
| The first blast was equal in strength to the detonation of three tons of TNT, while the second was the equivalent of 21 tons of the explosive, the China Earthquake Networks Centre said. The explosions, which took place within 30 seconds, were so strong that they registered at a nearby earthquake monitoring centre, the official People’s Daily reported on Twitter. The US Geological Survey registered a series of seismological actions at a seismometer station in Beijing, which is more than 160km from the blast. | |
| Videos posted on social media showed a pillar of flame that dwarfed nearby high-rise buildings, and shook homes several miles away. The blasts ripped offices and homes apart, and sent chunks of masonry flying through the air, pictures showed. One car was crushed by the debris and another was half buried in a crater in the road. | |
| #Tianjin: Hospital has received 300-400 injuries. 2 fire fighter lost contact, 6 injured. 38 fire engines on scene. pic.twitter.com/ZN11gpdra3 | #Tianjin: Hospital has received 300-400 injuries. 2 fire fighter lost contact, 6 injured. 38 fire engines on scene. pic.twitter.com/ZN11gpdra3 |
| Dazed and bloodied victims ran from the flames, one covered almost head to foot in blood, wearing only his underwear, pictures showed. Another carried a child wrapped in a blanket, another with a stool over his head as a shield from falling debris. It was not immediately clear how close to residential areas the centre of the explosion was, or how wide the radius of damage. | |
| Tianjin, a city of about 11 million people, is a base for refining and petrochemical industries. | |
| Additional research by Luna Lin in Beijing and Amanda Holpuch in New York | |