Tianjin residents kept in the dark about fatal blasts, Hong Kong witness says

A Hongkonger who lived just 3km away from a chemical explosion disaster in Tianjin, neighbouring Beijing, saw and felt the blasts from her window late on Wednesday night.

The woman, surnamed Ho, might have had practically a front-row seat to the fatal industrial accident, but she, just like other residents of the Chinese port city, was kept in the dark because of a dearth of reliable information from the authorities.

Calling in on a radio show this morning, Ho recalled the night’s happenings and the cloak of mystery surrounding the blasts that had killed scores of people.

She was about to retire at around 11.30pm, she said, when she felt the first tremor. Thirty seconds later, she heard an explosion and the floor beneath her shook even more.

“From my window, I saw an explosion with fire lighting up the sky and felt an air current rushing towards the window,” she said.

“I had turned on the air conditioner and so the windows were closed, but I could feel this burst of air trying to push in.”