Tianjin

The Tianjin government's official microblog said the confirmed toll rose from 150 last week, but it wasn't clear how the tally increased. Calls to the city's information center rang unanswered. Among the dead were 94 firefighters, 11 policemen and 53 civilians, and the missing included 10 firefighters, the Tianjin government said.

Now questions are being raised about whether the crews were properly trained and equipped to deal with the emergency at a warehouse that stored a volatile mix of chemicals, including compounds that become combustible on contact with water.

For a third day Monday, angry relatives of the 64 missing firefighters flocked to a hotel to demand information about their loved ones from government officials.

Fresh explosions are hampering search efforts at the site of Wednesday's huge blasts in Tianjin, as China rushes to evacuate residents over fears of spreading chemicals.

Police have confirmed the highly toxic substance sodium cyanide was found at the site, but a complete list of chemicals is yet to be identified by authorities.

More than 100 people have been confirmed dead and authorities fear for those who remain near the site.

Angry relatives of missing firefighters stormed a government news conference to demand any information on their loved ones, who have not been found since a fire and rapid succession of blasts late Wednesday at a warehouse for hazardous chemicals.

The death toll in the inferno in a mostly industrial area has climbed to 85, including 21 firefighters — making the disaster the deadliest for Chinese firefighters in more than six decades.

Authorities moved forward gingerly Friday in dealing with the fire still smoldering amid potentially dangerous chemicals.

A rapid succession of explosions late Wednesday — one equal to 21 tons of TNT — killed at least 50 people, injured more than 700 and left more than a dozen firefighters missing. 

Twelve of the dead were firefighters from among the more than 1,000 sent to fight the blaze.

The state-run Beijing News said on its website that that between 300 and 400 people had been admitted to hospitals in the city, east of Beijing. It says the explosions shattered windows and knocked off doors of buildings in the area.