Update | Tears as Tianjin mourns victims of warehouse blasts in commemoration ceremonies across city
Ceremonies have been held in Tianjin to mourn those killed in last week’s warehouse explosions.
The commemorations began at 9am on Tuesday at several sites in the city, including a park in the Binhai district, at the Teda Hospital where many of the injured are receiving treatment, and at a temporary shelter based at a school.
It is traditional in Chinese culture to mourn the dead on the seventh day after their death.
The number of people confirmed to have been killed after last Wednesday night’s blasts at a dangerous goods warehouse now stands at 114. Fifty firefighters are known to have died.
Hundreds of police officers, firefighters and residents took part in the brief ceremony at the park in Binhai, state television reported.
China’s Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun and the city’s mayor Huang Xingguo were among those present.
Firefighters’ relatives were taken to the ceremony by coach from hotels where they have been housed by the authorities.
They laid flowers to commemorate their loved ones.
The sister of a dead fireman, Sun Yunfei, said her family did not stay long at the ceremony. "It was sad to be there. I don't know if my parents can take that. We are just waiting to see my brother’s body now."
Heavy rain began to fall at about 10 am and the streets were largely deserted.
The city’s vice mayor warned on Monday that the rain could cause a chemical reaction to sodium cyanide that was stored at the warehouse and which may have been dispersed by the explosions.
He played down fears over its presence, saying that military specialists and government staff had twice scoured a 1km radius from the centre of the blasts.
An official in the civil affairs bureau said the process had begun to recognise firefighters killed during the blasts as state “martyrs”.
It will allow their families to receive a state pension and subsidies from the government.
DNA tests are being carried out to verify the remains of some of the firefighters who died.
Residents whose homes were damaged in the explosions held another demonstration outside the venue of a press conference briefing journalists on the relief effort.
They want the government to buy their homes as compensation.
One protester said she was unconcerned about the rain and threat of any contamination.
“Our homes have been destroyed. What more should we fear?" she said.
Other residents whose homes had been damaged in the blasts stood near the site of the explosions to silently remember the dead.
"We are here to commemerate the firefighters and make our voice heard," one resident said.
Tianjin’s top officials held a meeting on Sunday night after Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to the blast site earlier in the day.
Officials have pledged to carry out a thorough investigation into the causes of the accident and anyone found to have broken the law will be held to account, the Tianjin Daily reported.
At least 3,000 tonnes of hazardous chemicals were stored in the warehouse in Tianjin, a senior public security official told state television on Monday night.
Niu Yueguang, deputy director of the fire department at the Ministry of Public Security, said the chemicals included 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide, 800 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and 500 tonnes of potassium nitrate.
