BEIJING
New explosions have rocked a port city in northern China after specialized anti-chemical warfare soldiers entered an area where a massive fire killed 85 people.
State media said Saturday that authorities have evacuated people from within a three-kilometer (1.8 miles) radius of the site in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, while black smoke from reignited fires billowed into the sky.
News agency Xinhua reported that the blasts were heard in Tianjin at 11 a.m. (0300 GMT) at the site of Wednesday's fire.
As of Friday night, the death toll had risen to 85 while 44 people had been rescued from the debris.
Around 720 others remain in hospital, 25 critically wounded and 33 in a serious condition.
On Friday, authorities said they still did not know exactly what type or quantity of chemical was being stored in a warehouse that exploded in the port city.
Xinhua quoted Gao Huaiyou, the deputy head of Tianjin's work safety watchdog, as saying that information remained inconsistent.
Major discrepancies in the accounts of the company that ran the warehouse and customs, as well as damage to the company's office, had contributed to the difficulty in identifying the chemicals.
An initial blast that tore through area triggered a second explosion that sent fireballs into the sky, doors and windows flying in neighboring areas, and set cars and houses on fire.
Zhou Tian, Tianjin fire department chief, told a press conference Friday that at the time of the explosions, several firefighters had been trying to battle the flames as backup forces “just arrived”.
“They were caught off guard, so the casualties are grave," he said.
The city is a 30-minute train ride from Beijing, and home to 14.72 million people, according to 2013 data from China National Bureau of Statistics.
Xinhua reported that around 17,000 households, 1,700 companies and 675 stores had been affected by the blast.
