Tianjin blasts death toll rises to 114, 70 missing

TIANJIN. KAZINFORM - The death toll after the massive blasts last week in Tianjin rose to 114 after rescuers found two more bodies in the debris, a municipal publicity official said Monday. Gong Jiansheng of Tianjin's publicity department told the press the identities of 54 bodies have been confirmed, adding that another 70 people are still missing, Xinhua reported. Among the bodies, 39 were firefighters and five were policemen. The number of missing people was previously 95, before 25 bodies were identified. Among the missing are 64 firemen, he said. Rescuers have carried out four rounds of comprehensive search through what they called "a maze of containers," and search and rescue efforts are still under way. "Navigating through the blasts zone is extremely dangerous because of the burning chemicals and twisted containers, which could collapse at any time. We had to make marks in order not to get lost," said Wang Ke, who led a group of chemical specialist soldiers. Two massive blasts, which occurred before midnight on Aug. 12, have wreaked havoc on areas a few kilometers away. The blasts have affected 17,000 households and 1,700 enterprises. At least 6,000 residents have been displaced. Soldiers are combing nearby residential quarters to search for survivors, and their search has covered 6,000 households so far. As of Monday, 698 people remained in hospital, of whom 57 being in critical condition. More than 4,000 medical staff are treating the injured, and 77 people have been discharged from hospitals. A minor explosion occurred on Monday morning at the blasts site, located in the Binhai New Area. Dark smoke has abated, but flames can still be seen. Bao Jingling, chief engineer of Tianjin's bureau of environmental protection, said about 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide stored at the blasts site remain mostly unaffected. Sodium cyanide at the periphery of the blasts area will be mostly collected and cleared by Monday evening, said He Shushan, vice mayor of Tianjin. Environmental authorities set up 27 additional water monitoring spots, three of which were found to contain excessive cyanide, with some samples containing 27.4 times more than the standard. Two of the original waste water monitoring stations also found samples with cyanide levels of 1.25 to 2.2 times the standard. According to weather forecasts, Tianjin will see showers on Monday and Tuesday evenings. "Plans have been drafted to account for the weather to prevent the spread of contamination by cyanide," Bao said.