'Massive' explosion heard in Tianjin - China

[Eamonnca1]

I'll bet Willie Frazer knows who really caused it.

[muppet]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33844086

Some photos:

[macdanger2]

Desperate stuff

[ludermor]

Holy shit!
When i watched the video last night for the first time i actually jumped when the blast hit the people recording it, if they were getting such a wallop you can only dread what has happened people closer to the blast.

[laoislad]

Any news on the guy that the glass door fell on in that security video?

[Hardy]

How are there only 40-odd deaths with that level of devastation over a huge area in a densely populated city?

[Asal Mor]

How are there only 40-odd deaths with that level of devastation over a huge area in a densely populated city?

That struck me too. The Chinese Government has a reputation for downplaying these disasters.

[Minder]

How are there only 40-odd deaths with that level of devastation over a huge area in a densely populated city?

They probably dug a hole for all the dead bodies and filled it in, nothing to see here

[Bingo]

Looking at the blast, mightn't even be bodies left. 

[Asal Mor]

President Xi Jinping has promised a thorough investigation into what happened and "transparent information disclosure to the public,"

No doubt there'll be a few executions when they find out who was negligent or cutting corners.

[Asal Mor]

Xi Jinping is a man of his word.

China silences netizens critical of "disgraceful" blast coverage
Authorities in China have over the past 24 hours silenced social media users who have criticised the coverage of the Tianjin explosions.
Posts condemning "disgraceful" local TV coverage of the two blasts on 12 August have been removed from Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like micro-blogging platform, as have posts suggesting that local authorities restricted international media reporting on the incident.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33908168

[J70]

How are there only 40-odd deaths with that level of devastation over a huge area in a densely populated city?

http://i.imgur.com/MBlS7Wr.gif

[GJL]

How are there only 40-odd deaths with that level of devastation over a huge area in a densely populated city?

http://i.imgur.com/MBlS7Wr.gif

If you told me there were 4000 dead it would be more believable!

[omaghjoe]

Thats one serious bang, unreal! See the cars and shipping containers?.

Although I was just comparing it to the Halifax explosion and apparently its only a fraction of that size, there was a couple of thousand killed in that. Not sure of the exact comparison of the population in proximity to the blast but it seems the blast zone was mostly in an industrial area at night so most workers would have been at home. Also the initial explosion could have acted as a evacuation signal for much of the 2nd bigger explosion's blast zone. Id also imagine alot of the dead would have been vapourised so likely not in the total yet either.

Still tho, even with all that said the death figure seems low. All speculation of course we actually don't know diddly.