An explosion took place in China's northern city of Tianjin late Wednesday, August 12, 2015 evening, according to China's state-owned broadcaster CCTV. The explosion occurred at a container port where flammable material was being stored in containers, says CCTV. Residents report hearing loud explosions and feeling strong tremors nearby. The Teda Hospital, located near the scene of explosion, has received more than 50 injured people, the country's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
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Explosion in Tianjin, China 16 videos
An explosion took place in China's northern city of Tianjin late Wednesday, August 12, 2015 evening, according to China's state-owned broadcaster CCTV. The explosion occurred at a container port where flammable material was being stored in containers, says CCTV. Residents report hearing loud explosions and feeling strong tremors nearby. The Teda Hospital, located near the scene of explosion, has received more than 50 injured people, the country's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
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A photo of human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang and his family taken before he was detained in 2015.
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Deadly blasts hit Tianjin port operations
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TIANJIN, CHINA - AUGUST 17: (CHINA OUT) Rescuers work at the blast site during the aftermath of the warehouse explosion on August 17, 2015 in Tianjin, China. The death toll has risen to 114 following last Wednesday night's explosion at a warehouse in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)
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Smoke continues to billow from behind rows of burnt out Volkswagen cars the second morning after a series of explosions at a chemical warehouse hit the city of Tianjin, in northern China on August 14, 2015. A Chinese military team of nuclear and chemical experts began work on August 14 at the site of two massive explosions in the city of Tianjin, state media said, as pressure grows for authorities to explain the cause of blasts that left 50 dead. AFP PHOTO / FRED DUFOUR (Photo credit should read FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images)
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A woman (C) holds a name list of missing firefighters as family members talk to media to seek for help after being barred from a press conference authorities have at a hotel in Tianjin on August 15, 2015. Furious, frustrated and fearful, relatives of the missing in giant explosions in Tianjin besieged officials on August 15 demanding answers on their loved ones's fates- only for security to intervene instead.CHINA OUT AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images)
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A damaged car is seen at the site of the massive explosions in Tianjin on August 13, 2015. Enormous explosions in a major Chinese port city killed at least 44 people and injured more than 500, state media reported on August 13, leaving a devastated industrial landscape of incinerated cars, toppled shipping containers and burnt-out buildings. CHINA OUT AFP PHOTOSTR/AFP/Getty Images
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Story highlights

NEW: The death toll has more than double to 44, state-run news agency reports

Dozens of firefighters are missing, it says

More than 500 people are reported injured, dozens of them critically

Tianjin, China CNN  — 

A series of huge explosions shook the northern Chinese city of Tianjin late Wednesday, killing at least 44 people and injuring hundreds more, according to officials and state media.

The cause was not immediately clear.

Liu Yue, a 25-year-old Tianjin resident, said she felt the first blast but didn’t think too much of it.

“The second explosion was so powerful that I felt the entire 16-floor-building was shaking,” said Liu, who lives about 4 kilometers (2½ mi