China Tianjin blasts: Sodium cyanide containers located as death toll passes 112

Chinese emergency personnel have located the containers in which sodium cyanide was stored at the Tianjin blast site amid raging fears of toxic gas spreading even as the death toll reached 112.

Experts are treating the leaked sodium cyanide with hydrogen peroxide and other solutions to contain the situation, authorities said.

Shi Luze, chief of staff of Beijing Military Region, told reporters on Sunday, 16 August, that the sodium cyanide containers were spotted at two separate places at the blast site. There were several hundred tonnes of the lethal compound at the site when two blasts rocked the warehouse.

The unexploded containers are being collected and transported to safer locations. Local reports suggested 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide were stored at the warehouse, 70 times more than the permitted amount.

Evacuations in the surrounding area are continuing with more troops being deployed to handle the situation. Hundreds of nuclear and chemical warfare experts are at the blast site.

While the death toll is climbing, 95 others are still missing, 85 of them firefighters. Ten bodies, some of them mutilated, were found at the blast site on Sunday. DNA tests are under way to identify the victims.

Following the explosions, Chinese leaders have called for taking "profound lessons" regarding safety procedures in the industrial sector.

President Xi Jinping said authorities must always keep "safe development" and "people's interests first" in mind in order to avoid such disasters in future, according to the official Xinhua news agency.