Chinese
prosecutors are to probe whether deadly blasts at a warehouse in Tianjin were
due to illegal storage of dangerous materials, state media say. The explosions
killed 112 people and injured hundreds.
Deutsche Welle, 16 Aug 2015
State prosecutors
in China said on Sunday they had started an investigation to see whether owners
of the warehouse where the explosions occurred were guilty of violating laws on
the storage of hazardous chemicals.
The
announcement comes as authorities confirmed that hundreds of tons of the toxic chemical sodium cyanide had been on the site of the blasts late Wednesday evening in a mostly industrial area of the northern port city of Tianjin, 120
kilometers (75 miles) east of Beijing.
Such a
large amount would be a clear violation of rules cited by state media that a
maximum of 10 tons of the chemical may be stored at any one time. Chinese laws
on hazmat storage also stipulate that such substances should not be kept closer
than 1 kilometer from residential areas and public structures.
The Chinese military is helping with cleanup operations |
Sodium
cyanide can form a flammable gas upon contact with water, and members of the
public have questioned whether this fact had been taken into account by firefighters
responding to the accident. At least 21 firefighters were among those killed in
the warehouse fire and ensuing explosions, making the disaster the deadliest
for the Chinese fire brigade in more than six decades.
Eighty-five
of the 1,000 firefighters sent to combat the blaze remained unaccounted for on
Sunday, with 88 bodies of victims still unidentified.
In addition
to the 112 people confirmed dead, more than 700 people were hospitalized with
sometimes serious injuries. Many were hurt by glass shattered in the huge
fireballs that rose over the city on Wednesday night.
The explosions caused massive blast waves |
Official
reassurances
In the face
of internet rumors to the contrary, authorities have sought to reassure the
public that the air in Tianjin remains safe to breathe, despite slightly raised
levels of some pollutants.
In a bid to
further dispel public mistrust, the Chinese premier Li Keqiang arrived in the
city on Sunday afternoon and came within a kilometer of the blast site without
wearing any form of protective clothing.
Li also
visited those injured and displaced by the disaster.
The
government has also shut down a total of 50 websites and 360 social media
accounts for "creating panic by publishing unverified information or
letting users spread groundless rumors," according to the Cyberspace
Administration of China.
The Tianjin
accident was one of the deadliest to occur in China in recent years. In June
2013, a fire at a poultry plant in the northeastern province of Jilin killed
121 people. In August 2014, 97 died in an explosion at a metal plant in eastern
Jiangsu province.
No comments:
Post a Comment