Chinese Port Blast Kills 50, Injures 700 More
Two huge explosions tore through an industrial area where toxic chemicals and gas were stored in the northeast Chinese port city of Tianjin, killing at least 50 people, including at least a dozen fire fighters, officials and state media said on Thursday. 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. Wednesday 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. Internet videos showed fireballs shooting into the sky and the U.S. Geological Survey registered the blasts as seismic events.
Second Typhoon Threatens Taiwan
The Taiwan military was collecting and distributing sandbags to guard against possible flooding on Tuesday as a typhoon bore down on the island after brushing the Philippines. Typhoon Matmo, a category-two cyclone on Tropical Storm Risk's scale of one to five, was approaching from the southeast and was expected to strengthen until it hits on Tuesday night and moves on to China. "People everywhere should prepare for strong winds and rain," weather forecaster Lin Chih-hui said. Taiwan has sent troops from the northern city of I-lan to get sandbags ready, while financial markets, companies and schools were expected to close on Wednesday. Matmo arrived just a week after Typhoon Rammasun killed 97 people in the Philippines and 46 in China with another 25 still missing.
