CHINA-BLAST/HOSPITAL Injured people are treated in hospitals, worried friends and relatives look for the missing after Tianjin blasts

Record ID: 144026

  • Title: CHINA-BLAST/HOSPITAL Injured people are treated in hospitals, worried friends and relatives look for the missing after Tianjin blasts
  • Date: 14th August 2015
  • Summary: TIANJIN, CHINA (AUGUST 14, 2015) (REUTERS) SMOKE BILLOWING FROM BLAST SITE DAMAGED CONTAINERS VARIOUS OF SMOKE BILLOWING FROM BLAST SITE RELATIVES OF THE INJURED PEOPLE GATHERING AND TALKING DOCTORS WALKING IN INTENSIVE CARE UNIT (ICU) WHILE RELATIVES SITTING OUTSIDE IN CORRIDOR DOCTORS WALKING IN VARIOUS OF RELATIVES SITTING (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) FATHER OF A FIRE FIGHTER
  • Embargoed: 29th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9X5J1R7VTWRYCTPGV9HCDH44L
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Injured people were treated in local hospitals while distraught friends and family members of the missing continued to look for their loved ones on Friday (August 14), one day after two huge blasts ripped through an industrial area in China's northeast port city of Tianjin, killing at least 50 and injuring hundreds more.
    Wednesday (August 12) night's blasts, so large that they were seen by satellites in space, sent shockwaves through apartment blocks kilometres away in the port city of 15 million people.
    At least 700 people were injured, more than 71 seriously, the Tianjin government said on its Weibo microblog, and the official Xinhua news agency said two fires were still burning.
    In Tianjin's Fifth Centre Hospital, relatives of the injured waited anxiously outside the Intensive Care Unit.
    Wang Jinbao, father of a fire fighter who was among the injured, said he rushed to Tianjin immediately after hearing the news of the explosions.
    "We don't know exactly what happened to them at the scene. We arrived here yesterday from our hometown. We made some calls after hearing about the explosions, and then we came here by four hours of driving," Wang said, who is from neighbouring Hebei province.
    "(He) was inside the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). His spleen and stomach were hurt, internal organs were hurt. His back was also wounded," said Zhu Xiqing, whose husband was also in ICU.
    The cause of the blasts was being investigated but Xinhua said several containers caught fire beforehand. Industrial accidents are not uncommon in China following three decades of breakneck economic growth.
    People who had lost contact with their friends and relatives since the blasts occurred, looked for more information from doctors and hospital staff.
    Two employees from Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai International Logistics, the owner of the warehouse where the blasts took place, provided ID numbers of their two missing colleagues to the hospital, and then were allowed to searched through the ICU section for them.
    They later confirmed their colleagues were not there.
    The warehouse was designed to store dangerous and toxic chemicals, according to an assessment by environmental inspectors published in 2014. It was storing mainly ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate and calcium carbide at the time of the blasts, according to the police.
    A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency's Beijing environmental emergency response centre, as well as 214 Chinese military nuclear and biochemical materials specialists, had gone to Tianjin, Xinhua said.
    President Xi Jinping demanded that authorities "make full effort to rescue and treat the injured and ensure the safety of people and their property".
    Xi said in a statement carried by official media that those responsible should be "severely handled".
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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