MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, two blasts occurred in a warehouse in Tianjin, a key port and petrochemical hub northeast of Beijing. The powerful explosions and a following fire were triggered by flammable goods stored at the warehouse along with hazardous chemicals.
“Containers storing an estimated several hundred tons of sodium cyanide have been located by authorities at two places in the Tianjin blast zone,” Shi Luze, chief of staff of the Beijing Military Region, said as quoted by The China Daily newspaper on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, it was reported that the death toll from Wednesday's massive blasts had reached 112 people. Some 720 people have been hospitalized following the explosions, including 25 critically wounded and 33 in serious condition.
On Saturday, media reports emerged that people were evacuated from within a 1.1-mile zone around the blast site but Chinese officials refuted the reports, saying no such order had been given.
