Story highlights
Angry families storm a news conference demanding to know about missing relatives
Authorities need to learn from 'extremely profound' lessons, Chinese President says
(CNN) —
Crews searched for an unknown number of civilians and soldiers Saturday who are believed trapped by multiple explosions that killed at least 112 people this week in this eastern Chinese city.
As of Sunday morning, more than 50 people have been rescued in Tianjin, city government spokesman Gong Jiansheng said. They include a 19-year-old firefighter who lay on the ground for hours with burns and a cracked skull until he was found, officials said.
Relatives of some of the 95 people missing, mainly firefighters, stormed an official news conference demanding to know the whereabouts of their loved ones. Families wrote the names of missing people on posters lining a street outside a temporary shelter near the rescue site.
On Saturday, fires sent plumes of black smoke skyward near where explosions devastated a chemical warehouse in Tianjin on Wednesday.
But officials denied news reports that an evacuation order had been immediately issued for everyone within 1.8 miles (3 kilometers), with Gong calling the reports “false information.”
The Beijing News, citing the People’s Armed Police Force, had reported the evacuation order. CNN has reported that at least one disaster recovery shelter is located within the reported evacuation zone.
However, photographs made it appear that vehicles in a parking lot had caught fire rather than new explosions having taken place at the warehouse, as the Xinhua news agency had reported.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said Saturday that the Tianjin blasts and other recent accidents exposed severe problems in workplace safety and urged authorities to heed “safe growth” and “people’s interest first” in efforts to avoid such accidents, Xinhua reported.
The president also “urged authorities to learn from the ‘extremely profound’ lessons paid for with blood” in the Tianjin explosions, Xinhua reported.
Xi is demanding improvements to workplace safety, the agency added.
The first blasts on Wednesday, one of which carried the equivalent of more than 20 tons of TNT, left more than 700 people injured and thousands homeless, officials said. A man around 40 years old was reported to have been rescued from the site on Saturday.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
Chinatopix/AP
Smoke rises from debris on Saturday, August 15, near a crater that was at the center of a series of explosions in northeastern China's Tianjin municipality as seen from an aerial view.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
Steven Jiang/CNN
The Donghai Road light rail terminal station in Tianjin, China, is seen covered in debris on Monday, August 17. Explosions at a chemical warehouse left more than a hundred people dead and hundreds injured. Fire officials say hazardous chemicals stored at the warehouse were ignited by fire, but the fire's cause is still being investigated.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
Steven Jiang/CNN
A train with a smashed-up windscreen sits abandoned in the eerily deserted station on August 17.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
Yue Yuewei)/Xinhua/Sipa USA
Smoke rises as damaged cars explode on Saturday, August 15.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
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Stringer/AFP/Getty Images
Firefighters work August 15 at the site of the explosions.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
Wang Haobo/Xinhua/Sipa USA
Soldiers from the National Nuclear Biochemical Emergency Rescue Team launch a rescue mission August 15 at the core area of the explosion site.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
Chinatopix/AP
Smoke rises from debris on August 15 near a crater at the center of where the explosions took place.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
Stringer/AFP/Getty Images
Scattered debris is seen August 15 at the site of the explosions.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images
Volkswagens lie burned near ruined buildings on Friday, August 14.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
AFPTV/AFP/Getty Images
An aerial image taken shows toxic smoke rising from debris in Tianjin, a sprawling port city of more than 13 million people about 70 miles from Beijing.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
Ng Han Guan/AP
Firefighters wear protective gear while working as partially pink smoke billows nearby. The environmental group Greenpeace expressed concern "that certain chemicals will continue to pose a risk to the residents of Tianjin," and city residents shared similar fears on social media.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
STR/Getty Images
Rescuers are seen near the site of the blasts. A Chinese military team of nuclear and chemical were conducting investigations as pressure grew on authorities to explain the cause of the fire and the resulting cataclysmic explosions.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
Ng Han Guan/AP
Smoke from the explosion billows over destroyed cars. As of 2014, Tianjin was the world's 10th-busiest container port, according to the World Shipping Council.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
GREG BAKER/Getty Images
Residents take their belongings as they evacuate from parts of the city. Managers of the warehouse facility have provided "insufficient information" about what was stored there, a city safety official said, though it is known that sodium cyanide, a highly toxic chemical that can rapidly kill humans exposed to it, was one of the stored materials.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
GREG BAKER/GETTY
Three men walk out onto the streets after being treated at a hospital on Thursday, August 13.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
Ng Han Guan/AP
A Chinese police officer carries a man as civilians flee the area near the disaster.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
STR/Getty Images
Fire and smoke is seen from a broken window of an apartment.
Photos: Multiple explosions hit Chinese port city
PHOTO:
Ng Han Guan/AP
People walk among the crumpled remains of shipping containers. One of the explosions was estimated to be equivalent to 21 tons of TNT, or a magnitude-2.9 earthquake, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.
