Massive blasts rock Chinese city of Tianjin; 44 dead, hundreds injured

A series of huge explosions shook the northern Chinese city of Tianjin late Wednesday, killing at least 44 people and injuring hundreds more, according to officials and state media.

The cause was not immediately clear.

Liu Yue, a 25-year-old Tianjin resident, said she felt the first blast but didn’t think too much of it.

“The second explosion was so powerful that I felt the entire 16-floor-building was shaking,” said Liu, who lives about 4 kilometers (2½ miles) from the site of the blasts. “I thought it was an earthquake! I was extremely scared. I was afraid my family was in danger.”

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The initial explosion erupted at a warehouse for a logistics company in an industrial area of the port city, according to Tianjin police. The company was identified as Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics Co. Ltd.

The state-run news agency Xinhua reported that an explosion tore through a warehouse storing “dangerous and chemical goods” in Binhai, an area of the city by the water.

The firefighting division of the Chinese Public Security Ministry said firefighters were first called to the scene about a fire. An explosion went off after they arrived, it said.

As smoke continued to billow into the sky from the site Thursday, local authorities suspended firefighting efforts at the scene because of a lack of information on the “dangerous goods” that were stored at the warehouse, Xinhua reported.

Smoke rises from debris on Saturday, August 15, near a crater that was at the center of a series of explosions in northeastern China's Tianjin municipality as seen from an aerial view.

The Donghai Road light rail terminal station in Tianjin, China, is seen covered in debris on Monday, August 17. Explosions at a chemical warehouse left more than a hundred people dead and hundreds injured. Fire officials say hazardous chemicals stored at the warehouse were ignited by fire, but the fire's cause is still being investigated.

A train with a smashed-up windscreen sits abandoned in the eerily deserted station on August 17.

Smoke rises as damaged cars explode on Saturday, August 15.

Firefighters work August 15 at the site of the explosions.

Soldiers from the National Nuclear Biochemical Emergency Rescue Team launch a rescue mission August 15 at the core area of the explosion site.

Smoke rises from debris on August 15 near a crater at the center of where the explosions took place.

Scattered debris is seen August 15 at the site of the explosions.

Volkswagens lie burned near ruined buildings on Friday, August 14.

An aerial image taken shows toxic smoke rising from debris in Tianjin, a sprawling port city of more than 13 million people about 70 miles from Beijing.

Firefighters wear protective gear while working as partially pink smoke billows nearby. The environmental group Greenpeace expressed concern "that certain chemicals will continue to pose a risk to the residents of Tianjin," and city residents shared similar fears on social media.

Rescuers are seen near the site of the blasts. A Chinese military team of nuclear and chemical were conducting investigations as pressure grew on authorities to explain the cause of the fire and the resulting cataclysmic explosions.

Smoke from the explosion billows over destroyed cars. As of 2014, Tianjin was the world's 10th-busiest container port, according to the World Shipping Council.

Residents take their belongings as they evacuate from parts of the city. Managers of the warehouse facility have provided "insufficient information" about what was stored there, a city safety official said, though it is known that sodium cyanide, a highly toxic chemical that can rapidly kill humans exposed to it, was one of the stored materials.

Three men walk out onto the streets after being treated at a hospital on Thursday, August 13.

A Chinese police officer carries a man as civilians flee the area near the disaster.

Fire and smoke is seen from a broken window of an apartment.

People walk among the crumpled remains of shipping containers. One of the explosions was estimated to be equivalent to 21 tons of TNT, or a magnitude-2.9 earthquake, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang called for "all-out efforts" to save the injured and minimize casualties, the state-run Xinhua news outlet reported.

Over 1,000 firefighters were called in to put out secondary fires caused by the explosions.

People sleep in a classroom at a primary school used as a makeshift emergency evacuation center.

A bandaged man eats in a hospital in Tianjin.

A firefighter grimaces as he is examined for injuries. Seventeen firefighters were among the people killed, officials said.

An injured survivor is brought to a hospital following the explosion.

Fires continued to burn near the site of the explosions in the early hours of Thursday, August 13.

A photographer captures the plume of the second, and most massive, of the series of explosions.

The initial explosion erupts Wednesday night, August 12 at a warehouse owned by Rui Hai International Logistics Co. Executives of the company were taken into custody, state media reported on August 13.

Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city

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Xinhua reported Thursday that 12 firefighters were among the dead and that dozens more remained unaccounted for in the aftermath of the blasts.

Video from late Wednesday showed a blinding blast of light and smoke that sent fireballs shooting across the night sky. That was followed by an even bigger explosion, the force of which appeared to knock over the video camera.

The shock waves were felt kilometers away, Xinhua reported, and some residents said windows and fish tanks had been shattered.

The state-run China Earthquake Networks Center said in an official post on social media that two of the explosions had carried the force of small earthquakes. The first was measured at magnitude of 2.3, the second at 2.9, it said.

As day broke Thursday, the extent of the damage was beginning to become clear. State media carried images of damaged buildings and parking lots full of rows of burned-out cars.

Xinhua said that 44 people were killed and more than 500 were hospitalized, 66 of them for critical injuries. It had reported earlier that most of the injuries were from stones or broken glass.

The injured were taken to different hospitals in the city, and people gathered outside, waiting for news of loved ones.

Many roads were blocked off around the city, which has a population of more than 13 million.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have called for “all-out efforts” to save the injured and minimize casualties, Xinhua reported. Li also promised a full investigation of the incident.

Steven Jiang reported from Tianjin. Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong, and Dana Ford reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN’s Will Ripley, Shen Lu, Kevin Wang, Elizabeth Joseph and Don Melvin contributed to this report.