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posted by takyon on Wednesday August 12 2015, @11:00PM   Printer-friendly

Breaking: Massive Explosions Rock China's Tianjin

At least two major explosions tore through Tianjin in eastern China on Wednesday night. According to Xinhua, the shockwaves from the blasts "were felt kilometers away" and shattered windows.

Chinese media reports indicated that the blasts occurred around 11:30 p.m. local time. People's Daily tweeted that the "quake" from the blast was "felt 10 km away." In a separate tweet, People's Daily cited the China Earthquake Network Center as saying that two explosions had occurred within 30 seconds, one magnitude 2.3 ML (or Richter magnitude) and [the] other magnitude 2.9 ML.

The number of casualties is still unknown; Xinhua's official report (issued at around 3 a.m. local time) noted "at least 50" people injured, while the official Twitter account of People's Daily said a local hospital "has received 300-400 injured." No deaths have been confirmed as of this writing, but two firefighters have been reported missing.

Update: People's Daily is now reporting 13 dead.

There were conflicting reports as to the cause of the blast. Initial speculation suggested the cause was gas or oil-related, possibly connected to the liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal in Tianjin. By around 3 a.m. local time, official Chinese media sources were reporting that the explosion started at a warehouse in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, where "dangerous goods" were being stored.

CCTV had the most specific information, citing the Tianjin Public Security Bureau as saying that the explosion occurred at the Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics Co. Ltd, "which handles the transport of hazardous goods." Xing Zheming of CCTV America said the first explosion involved flammable materials; the second involved oil.

Update: People's Daily reports that a representative from Rui Hai is being questioned in connection with the explosion.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 12 2015, @11:57PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday August 12 2015, @11:57PM (#222008) Journal

    NPR, Reuters, WSJ, Los Angeles Times, etc. all have stories on this that seem to be less than an hour old.

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  • (Score: 2) by mendax on Thursday August 13 2015, @12:18AM

    by mendax (2840) on Thursday August 13 2015, @12:18AM (#222020)

    The NY Times had it at noon, or there abouts.

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    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday August 13 2015, @12:41AM

      by bob_super (1357) on Thursday August 13 2015, @12:41AM (#222031)

      Quick, we need a conspiracy theory that they had it first because they did it...

      What? If the NSA had a press arm, i'm sure quite a few SN people would believe that one...

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 13 2015, @12:50AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 13 2015, @12:50AM (#222038) Journal

        i'm sure quite a few SN people would believe that one...

        Quite very few, I hope. Are you sure you don't mistake SN from slashdolt?

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        • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday August 13 2015, @12:57AM

          by bob_super (1357) on Thursday August 13 2015, @12:57AM (#222039)

          Every bug post, or service backdoor or even the laziness of not encrypting fingerprint images (and that's just today), is instantly met with posts summarizable as: "it's so convenient for #TLA to spy on All Of us/Us/US". Which get upvoted.
          A small number of posters maybe, but a noisy minority.

          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 13 2015, @01:07AM

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 13 2015, @01:07AM (#222044) Journal

            Yes, I know, Hanlon's razor.
            But... there is point beyond which stupidity and maliciousness are indistinguishable. Beyond that point even hypothesizing about the reasons/motives behind the state of fact is moot in the face of the consequences.

            See my other comment [soylentnews.org] as an exemplification of the above

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    • (Score: 4, Touché) by LoRdTAW on Thursday August 13 2015, @12:44AM

      by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday August 13 2015, @12:44AM (#222033) Journal

      Yea man, soylent has been slipping lately. I mean such a large, well respected media outlet staffed by hundreds of well paid journalists and owned by billionaire NCommander certainly could do a lot better.

    • (Score: 2) by hankwang on Thursday August 13 2015, @07:32AM

      by hankwang (100) on Thursday August 13 2015, @07:32AM (#222168) Homepage

      At noon, ok, but in what time zone?