Tianjin explosion: Dozens dead, areas of Chinese port city devastated

By Will Ripley, Steven Jiang and Jethro Mullen, CNN
Updated 11:27 PM EDT, Thu August 13, 2015
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Massive explosion rocks China port
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Explosion in Tianjin, China 16 videos
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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: Chemical specialists from the military have been sent in the area

NEW: More than 700 people have been hospitalized, dozens with critical injuries

Dozens of people remain missing

Tianjin, China CNN  — 

You can see the devastation everywhere: in the hollowed-out shells of buildings, in the anguished faces of relatives, in the parade of scorched cars.

But what set off the terrifying explosions that ripped through warehouses containing hazardous chemical materials, shooting fireballs across the sky and shaking buildings more than 2 miles away?

Hours later, amid the destruction in this northern Chinese port city of more than 13 million people, the cause of Wednesday night’s blast remained unclear.