News Digest

Residents leave as deadly sodium cyanide confirmed at China blast site

Residents have been evacuated from a 1.5-mile zone after deadly sodium cyanide was found at the site of explosions that killed at least 85 people in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. Chinese police have for the first time confirmed deadly sodium cyanide at the site of two huge warehouse blasts that killed 85 people, state media said on Saturday, as a series of new, small explosions were heard and small fires broke out. Police confirmed the presence of the chemical, fatal when ingested or inhaled, “roughly east of the blast site” in an industrial zone in Tianjin. It did not say how much had been found or how great a risk it posed.

We have gone to each and every hospital by ourselves and not found them. There is no government official willing to meet us. Not even one.

Wang Baoxia, whose elder brother is missing

Tianjin Fire Department head Zhou Tian said on Friday that the explosions occurred as reinforcements arrived on the scene and were just getting to work. "There was no chance to escape, and that’s why the casualties were so severe,“ he said. "We’re now doing all we can to rescue the missing." Officials have faced questions about whether the firefighters inadvertently sparked the explosion by using water around volatile chemicals and why the hazardous chemicals warehouse was so close to residential buildings and other critical infrastructure.