TIANJIN, China (Reuters) – The death toll from two massive explosions that tore through an industrial area in the northeastern Chinese port of Tianjin has risen to 104, state media said yesterday, as China’s president urged improvements in workplace safety.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said authorities should learn the lessons paid for with blood in Wednesday warehouse blasts, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The number of people killed had previously been put at 85.
China evacuated residents who had taken refuge in a school near the site of two huge explosions, state media said, after a change in wind direction yesterday prompted fears that toxic chemical particles could be blown inland.
It was not clear from media reports how many people were evacuated.
The evacuation order came as a fire broke out again at the site of Wednesday’s blasts, a warehouse specially designed to store dangerous chemicals, according to Xinhua.
Evacuees were advised to wear long trousers and face masks as they “evacuated in an orderly fashion”, according to a post on the official microblog of the Tianjin branch of the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China. The streets appeared calm.
But not all was clear amid emotional scenes as families of missing fire fighters sought answers about their loved ones and officials tried to keep media cameras away. Gong Jiansheng, a district official, told reporters there had been no evacuation.
In one piece of encouraging news, a 50-year-old man was rescued 50 metres away from the blast zone, Xinhua said. The man was suffering from a burnt respiratory tract but was in a stable condition after surviving three days in a shipping container, the official China Central Television (CCTV) and Xinhua said.
