Explosions in Tianjin, China.

[Come along, Min]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-33900268

The main story in the news for the last half day or so. There's been some nightmarish footage coming out. A Richter/Tactical Nuclear sized explosion. At least 50 dead so far. 700 injured. Wouldn't be surprised if that figure got a little higher. Explosions were apparently in a industrial area so perhaps not.

Here's a video from liveleak (comments section not really known for their sensitivity, so a head's up on that). No gore but the way the ground directly in front of the camera vaporizes in the split second before it cuts, suggests the poor person holding the camera probably died. RIP. There's a few other videos on there and this one from youtube where most of those are synched up in one.

China unsurprisingly trying to keep a lid on the social media chat about it.

[ursus arctos]

Explosions in Tianjin, China.

The early official report that the explosion involved "dangerous goods" was a good job, good effort.

[blameless]

Explosions in Tianjin, China.

There are a couple of videos on the BBC too - in both of them, the person doing the filming is clearly knocked over by what looks like a brutal shockwave.

It must have been something pretty catastrophic that went up in that industrial complex - the rows of scorched cars (they were being stored on the dockside) shown on most news sites today look like something from old A-bomb test footage.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Explosions in Tianjin, China.

When this came on the BBC News programme last night and was first suggested to have been the result of an accident at an explosive substances warehouse I immediately thought of this event.

[ursus arctos]

Explosions in Tianjin, China.

Me too

Good piece from the FT (may be paywalled)

The local environment-monitoring station said the stored chemicals included sodium cyanide, used in gold mining, toluene diisocyanate, used for polyurethane foam, and calcium carbide, for making acetylene, a petrochemical feedstock. The latter two explode when mixed with water.

The incident is the latest in a series of deadly industrial accidents in China. Also on Wednesday, a vanadium mine in Shaanxi province collapsed and buried at least 65 people under a landslide.

Explosions and fires have been a particular problem in port cities, where petrochemical facilities, gas pipelines and residential compounds are close together.

[Hugh Fatbastard]

Explosions in Tianjin, China.

The company with explosive warehouses in Tianjin

Executives of the company have been controlled.

hmm...

[Borracho]

Explosions in Tianjin, China.

Jesus christ.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/84695768#.Vc-df7rXGcI.twitter

[EIM]

Explosions in Tianjin, China.

The people who filmed that are proper dicks.

[Borracho]

Explosions in Tianjin, China.

Yes, morons.

[linus]

Explosions in Tianjin, China.

You wonder how much this curve is going to flatten in decades to come, given the increasing rate of urbanization in China and the problems with pollution.

http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg..._to_webp=true]

[Come along, Min]

Explosions in Tianjin, China.

another huge explosion today, this time in Shandong Province.

Get a load of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acW52C67h68

[Eggchaser]

Explosions in Tianjin, China.

Christ Almighty, it looks like a WW2 blockbuster was dropped.