Explosion in Tianjin

In northeastern China, a massive explosion at a chemical-storage facility at the port of Tianjin on Aug. 12 killed at least 139 people and injured more than 700, with at least 34 people still missing as of press time. Many of those killed, injured or missing were firefighters. The blast, which had the strength of 21 metric tonnes of TNT, damaged at least 17,000 homes and displaced more than 6,000 people. 

As a precaution, people living within three kilometers of the site were evacuated due to there having been the poison sodium cyanide in the warehouse. Post explosion, monitors showed 27.4 times the normal limit of cyanide in the bay.

Seventy miles southeast of Beijing, Tianjin has 15 million people.