Huge Explosion Rocks Chinese City

05:33

August 13, 2015

A damaged car is seen at the site of the massive explosions in Tianjin, China today. Enormous explosions in the port city killed at least 44 people and injured more than 500, state media reported, leaving a devastated industrial landscape of incinerated cars, toppled shipping containers and burnt-out buildings. (STR/Getty Images)

Dozens were killed and hundreds of people were injured in the blasts shortly before midnight last night in the Chinese city of Tianjin.

"There was the huge fireball in the sky with thick clouds," said one man about the explosions that rocked a warehouse full of hazardous chemicals in the port city. Windows several miles away were shattered. State media say the senior management of the company that owns the warehouse has been detained.

NPR's Frank Langfitt joins Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson to discuss the situation in Tianjin.

Guest

Frank Langfitt, NPR correspondent based in Shanghai. He tweets @franklangfitt.

This segment aired on August 13, 2015.