Tianjin Blasts: ‘It was like the end of the world'
One of the largest and most densely-populated port cities in the world has been devastated by a series of huge explosions at a chemicals warehouse.
Tianjin residents described witnessing the effects of an “earthquake”, an “atomic bomb”, or a scene from a “Hollywood disaster movie”, after shockwaves from the largest blast damaged homes and vehicles for miles around.
At least 50 people have been killed by the explosion, and more than 700 injured. The two main blasts were so powerful they registered as seismic events with the US Geological Survey.
The explosions originated at a warehouse site owned by Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics Co., a company that stores and transports dangerous chemicals. Company executives have been taken into custody, state media said.
The blasts' destructive force tore into Tianjin, smashing buildings and mangling shipping containers.
The first explosion was huge, and the second was even more powerful -- the equivalent of 21 metric tons of TNT or a magnitude-2.9 earthquake, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.
The explosions destroyed the house in which Qian Jiping and his wife, both of them migrant construction workers, were staying.
"When I heard the first explosion, I thought we were finished," Qian said.
Strangers pulled them from the rubble. They fled barefoot, barely feeling the shards of glass that littered the ground.
Across the city, residents were jolted awake as the blasts shattered windows and fish tanks.
"The shock wave just blew through our apartment. It blew out the glass, it blew out the doors, it knocked out the power," said Vafa Anderson, a teacher at an international school who lives less than 2 kilometers from the explosions' epicenter.
"I thought it was an earthquake," said Liu Yue, a 25-year-old woman who lives about 4 kilometers (2½ miles) away. "I was extremely scared. I was afraid my family was in danger."
She told CNN the 16-story building she lives in was rocking.
In a statement, the environmental group Greenpeace said it feared that the danger was not over.
"We are concerned that certain chemicals will continue to pose a risk to the residents of Tianjin," the statement said.
"According to the Tianjin Tanggu Environmental Monitoring Station, hazardous chemicals stored by the company concerned include sodium cyanide (NaCN), toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and calcium carbide (CaC2), all of which pose direct threats to human health on contact. NaCN in particular is highly toxic. Ca(C2) and TDI react violently with water and reactive chemicals, with risk of explosion," Greenpeace said.
With many of those injured suffering skin trauma, hospitals in and around Tianjin issued appeals for blood donations – and were met with an overwhelming response.
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