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A team of 214 military specialists in handling nuclear and biochemical materials has arrived in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin following Wednesday’s warehouse explosion, thought to have been caused by volatile chemicals on site.

The personnel, all from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Beijing Military Area Command, left Beijing at noon on Thursday, led by Deputy General Chief of Staff Wang Zhengrong.

The military department has also organized 130 militiamen to assist with the rescue operation, including by controlling drones and piloting helicopters to observe the site and drop water on the flames.

A total of 125 officers and soldiers on reserve duty from Tianjin Garrison Command are also working on the site.

The PLA Beijing Military Area Command sent 45 medics to set up clinics 3 km from the blast site earlier on Thursday. Seventy-eight patients have so far been treated at the clinics and transferred to other hospitals.

The death toll from the incident currently stands at 44. Twelve firefighters are among the dead.

A first explosion occurred around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the warehouse in the Binhai New Area. Only seconds later, a second blast wreaked more havoc, shooting fireballs into the sky, damaging nearby buildings and setting cars on fire. (PNA/Xinhua)

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Quick to blame Chinese officials for forcing its correspondent off air while he reported on the deadly Tianjin blasts, CNN has now retracted its rash comments, but no outright apology has been forthcoming.

The U.S-based cable news network on Thursday tweeted that its correspondent Will Ripley was interrupted during a live report “by upset friends and relatives of victims killed and injured in the China blasts.”

An earlier CNN tweet claiming Ripley was “shut down by officials” while reporting from outside a hospital where many of the survivors of the warehouse blasts are being treated, has been deleted.

The incorrect report by one of the world’s most powerful media outlets unleashed a torrent of criticism of the Chinese government for its treatment of the foreign press in reporting the tragic events. Reporters from many other international media houses were also reporting in Tianjin.

Local Chinese authorities have confirmed that no government officials had been involved in Thursday morning’s scuffle.

“We express regrets over this,” Gong Jiansheng, a local publicity official, told reporters.

It was not clear why friends and relatives of the victims interrupted Ripley, but in China, the death of a relative is regarded as a deeply personal, family matter and media exposure is seen as intrusive, and hugely disrespectful to the dead.

This is not the first untrue CNN report from China. In 2008, the network came under fire for doctoring photographs while reporting on the March 14 riot in Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region.

CNN also used quotation marks around the word “terrorists” in its reportage of a horrifying attack by Islamic extremists on members of the public in a southwest Chinese city last year.

At least 44 people have been confirmed dead, with 21 others still missing, after massive warehouse explosions ripped through north China’s port city of Tianjin late Wednesday night.

A total of 521 people have been hospitalized, including 52 critically injured.

The Tianjin fire brigade said it has sent 1,000 firefighters and 143 fire engines to the warehouse, which contained dangerous goods. (PNA/Xinhua)

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Forty-four people were confirmed dead, and at least 21 others remain missing after massive explosions ripped through north China’s port city of Tianjin on Wednesday night.

Hundreds of firefighters are still battling the blaze.

Most of the patients suffered burns, bruises, bone fractures and injuries related to the shockwave.

The rescue headquarter previously said 66 people were critically injured. The number was reduced to 52 after medical specialists from Beijing better assessed their patients.

Taking on the look of a war zone or apocalyptic film, the gutted remains of an industrial area in Tianjin, China. Photo: Beijing Youth Daily

The Tianjin fire brigade said the warehouse contained dangerous goods, making the fire unpredictable and dangerous to approach.

A firefighter told Xinhua that a dozen fire engines have driven to the site, and more firemen will enter to put out the flames and make way for search and rescue efforts.

Xinhua reporters saw at least 200 armed police officers around the warehouse.

Lu Yun, head of Teda Hospital, which admitted about 150 injured people, told Xinhua that most of the injuries were from broken glass or stones. Some of the injuries are serious.

A list of injured people admitted to the hospital shows 38 patients ranging from 19 to 63 years old were being treated in the hospital’s intensive care unit and osteology, neurology, surgery and other departments as of 9:00 a.m. Thursday.

Schools and other sites near the warehouse opened on Thursday to help the injured. An aquarium further away also put out a statement on Thursday, offering its service center, washrooms and parking lot to the public around the clock for the rest of this week, to help aid distribution and blood donations.

Rail links connecting downtown Tianjin to the Binhai New Area were suspended after shockwaves from the blast damaged the Donghai Road Terminal.

The office building housing Chinese supercomputer Tianhe-1, one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, suffered damage. Sources at Tianhe-1 told Xinhua the computer is not damaged, but they have shut down some of its operations as a precaution.

Tianhe-1 provides data services to more than 300 organizations across China, including several universities and banks.

Volunteers have arrived at hospitals for blood donation, and taxi drivers and private car owners offered help to transport the wounded to hospitals. Several hotels have provided free accommodation to residents displaced by the blast. (PNA/Xinhua)

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Hundreds of firefighters are struggling to contain flames after two explosions at a warehouse in Tianjin on Wednesday night, their efforts hampered by complex conditions at the site.

The Tianjin fire brigade said it has sent 1,000 firefighters and 143 fire engines to the warehouse, which contained dangerous goods. The volatility of the goods means the fire is especially unpredictable and dangerous to approach.

A firefighter told Xinhua that a dozen fire engines have driven into the site, and more firemen will enter to put out the flames and make way for search and rescue efforts.

Xinhua reporters saw at least 200 armed police officers around the warehouse.

At least 44 people were killed and more than 500 others were injured.

About 283 people have been treated in hospital, but those who suffered minor injuries have since left after treatment, according to the Tianjin municipal government.

Executives of Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics Co. Ltd., owner of the warehouse, have been detained by police. (PNA/Xinhua)

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South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo said Wednesday that the military plans to expand propaganda broadcasts in frontline areas bordering the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in response to the DPRK’s landmine provocation.

Han told a parliamentary defense committee that propaganda broadcasts through loudspeakers would be aired in all 10 posts standing along the inter-Korean land border, saying four posts resumed the broadcasts as of now.

The psychological warfare was resumed for the first time in 11 years on Monday in frontline army units after two South Korean soldiers were maimed on Aug. 4 by the explosion of landmines on the South side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ).

The minister said the military was considering other retaliatory actions against the provocation, including the sending of anti-DPRK leaflets through balloons across the border.

The South Korean military has warned that the DPRK would pay a “harsh price” for the landmine provocations. It was reportedly considering a prompt response to DPRK forces violating the military demarcation line (MDL) with aimed shots, skipping the procedures of warning shots and warning broadcasts.

President Park Geun-hye mentioned the DPRK provocation for two days, saying South Korea will sternly deal with such provocations while making efforts to build peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Park said the DPRK hasn’t responded to any South Korean offer for dialogue while conducting provocations, citing the landmine explosion. (PNA/Xinhua)

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Secretary of State John Kerry told the media on Tuesday that Russian and Chinese hackers likely read his e-mail messages.

Kerry explained he writes his e-mails being aware of the possibility they are being read by individuals they are not intended for.

Cyberattacks are an issue that the United States has “raised very, very strongly in our dialogue with the Chinese,” he explained.

Kerry’s comments come just days after the United States accused Russian hackers of being behind a cyberattack on the Pentagon’s e-mail system, targeting information of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Meanwhile, Washington also accused Beijing of being behind the massive data breach against the Office of Personnel Management in April 2015, compromising the personal information of some 21 million current and former federal government employees.

Kerry said cybersecurity would be on the discussion agenda between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Washington in September 2015. (PNA/Sputnik)

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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russia are bracing for a possible military confrontation, a European defense think-tank policy analysis revealed Wednesday.

The London-based institute cited two major military exercises conducted this year as grounds for its prognosis.

NATO held Allied Shield drills involving 15,000 personnel from 19 member states in a number of Eastern European nations in June. These included Trident Joust in Romania, BALTOPS, Saber Strike and Noble Jump — NATO’S first Very High Readiness Joint Task Force deployment — in Poland.

In March, 80,000 Russian troops and thousands of units of equipment took part in nationwide snap combat readiness inspections.

The ELN argued that the intensified nature and the scale of both exercises demonstrate the likelihood that “each side is training with the other side’s capabilities and most likely war plans in mind.”

The think-tank stopped short of suggesting an explicit decision has been reached, or that Russia-NATO conflict was inevitable, but said the changed profile of exercises is a “fact” that feeds into ongoing geopolitical tensions.

The ELN recommended a four-step pathway toward alleviating simmering tensions, including boosting NATO-Russia communication, examining drills in border areas, utilizing OSCE and Soviet-era confidence building measures channels. Additionally, the institute proposed the adoption of a new conventional arms control treaty.

Russia’s relations with the United States, the European Union and other Western states deteriorated sharply in the wake of the Ukrainian conflict, as well as NATO’s continuous eastward expansion.

Moscow has repeatedly claimed that NATO’s increased activities near its borders undermine regional stability. (PNA/Sputnik)