CHINA-BLAST/FAMILIES Tianjin blast residents and relatives demand answers

Record ID: 143755

  • Title: CHINA-BLAST/FAMILIES Tianjin blast residents and relatives demand answers
  • Date: 16th August 2015
  • Summary: TIANJIN, CHINA (AUGUST 16, 2015) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS STANDING OUTSIDE HOTEL WHERE PRESS CONFERENCE BEING HELD PROTESTER HOLDING MAP SHOWING DISTANCE OF RESIDENTIAL AREAS AND TRAIN STATION FROM SITE OF BLAST WOMAN HOLDING WRITTEN STATEMENT FROM RESIDENTS (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) MALE RESIDENT, SAYING: "We basically didn't know" (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) RESIDENT, MS SUN, SAYING
  • Embargoed: 31st August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2BSCQG13BT0QXMVNJOZ0I3ZKT
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Residents and desperate relatives of fire fighters still missing in the Tianjin explosions gathered outside a hotel where a news conference was taking place on Sunday (August 16), hoping to find answers.
    The death toll from massive explosions in China's port city of Tianjin has risen to 112 and 95 people are missing, the officials said Sunday and suggested number could rise significantly.
    Around two hundred residents of housing development complexes located as close as 800 meters away from the blast site unfurled a banner that read "Qihang Jiayuan refugees call for action".
    The residents said they had no idea they were living so close to a dangerous chemicals storage facility.
    "We all live in the residential complex, did you know there was a dangerous good storage warehouse near us? No one told us. And you, did anyone tell you? We didn't know," said Ms Sun.
    "Absolutely no one told us there were dangerous goods over there," said another female resident.
    A separate group of relatives of missing contractor fire fighters also gathered outside the hotel seeking answers, saying authorities had given them almost no information on the whereabouts of their loved ones.
    Eighty-five of the missing from Wednesday's disaster are contractor fire fighters.
    "We've come from so far away, we don't know anyone here, we just saw the reports so came over to have a look, we're not coming here to make a fuss, we just.... feel so bad," said a relative of the fire fighters.
    Authorities put the news conference on lock down, fearing relatives might try to enter, as they did the day before. Doors leading to the press conference were padlocked and fire escape staircases were locked.
    Some 6,300 people have been displaced by the blasts with around 721 injured, Xinhua said earlier. Shockwaves from the explosions were felt by residents in apartment blocks kilometres away in the city of 15 million people.
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