UPDATE: Aug. 12, 2015, 4:47 PM EDT
BEIJING (AP) — Huge explosions at a container port in the northeastern Chinese city of Tianjin have injured at least 300 people, state media outlets and officials said Thursday.
The state-run Beijing News said on its website that between 300 and 400 people had been admitted to hospitals in the city, east of Beijing. It says the explosions shattered windows and knocked off doors of buildings in the area.
Police in Tianjin said an initial blast took place late Wednesday night in shipping containers at a warehouse for hazardous materials owned by a logistics company. The official Xinhua News agency said an initial explosion triggered other blasts at nearby businesses. The National Earthquake Bureau reported two major blasts before midnight, the first with an equivalent of 3 tons of TNT, and the second with the equivalent of 21 tons.
#Breaking: Massive explosion rocks N China’s #Tianjin, cause & casualties unclear yet (web sources) @BreakingNews pic.twitter.com/GOG8Q7OWew
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) August 12, 2015
Photos circulating online show a gigantic fireball high in the sky, with a mushroom-cloud.
WATCH: CCTV captures moments before blast, via China’s state news service
Video: CCTV captures moment #blast occurred in Chinese city of #Tianjin
https://t.co/gmQHGtUPe4
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) August 12, 2015
State broadcaster CCTV says six battalions of firefighters had brought the ensuing fire under control, although it was still burning. It says the firefighters were combing the neighborhood for possible injured residents.
Watch video of the explosion below, via YouTube user kouzou Fan (warning: graphic content)
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the logistics company running the warehouse had proper approval for the business.
“had” will likely be a permanent situation…
In the parlance of the American plutocrat “job creators” who send all our jobs over there: “We just created 300 job openings in one day.”
Please tell me the guy in the first video survived. I really hope I didn’t just watch someone get killed.
Why do people around the world INSIST upon holding their cell phone cameras vertical instead of horizontal? We would get a much better view but they insist upon doing video the same way they talk on the phone.
Let’s just make all new phones incapable of recording video in the vertical position.
Holy shit! What’s going on there? I wonder if we’ll ever find out the truth or if they’ll find a way to censor a lot of the information eventually.