It was just before midnight on Wednesday when a series of huge explosions shook the Chinese port city of Tianjin. The force of the explosion was equivalent to 21 metric tons of TNT, and claimed at least 50 lives while hundreds were reportedly injured.
According to officials and state media, no one yet knows what caused the blasts. What is known is that it occurred in a warehouse for logistic company called Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics Co. Ltd, which is said to handle the transport of hazardous substances.
Tianjin has one of the biggest ports in China and most of the cars coming in from Europe and the US come through here. Most of Northern China receives imported vehicles thanks to these facilities and most are considered expensive goods. Due to this massive explosion, thousands of vehicles have been affected by the blaze. Some were completely burned while others were damaged by the force of the blast. As you can see from the picture above, the approximate blast location is just next to thousands of brand new cars waiting to shipped from the port of Tianjin.
The automotive casualty includes 1,065 Touaregs, 391 Beetles, 257 Tiguans, 114 Golfs, 84 Up! minicars, 39 SportVans, and 28 Magotans (a locally built version of the Passat). While those are the only vehicles listed, the Chinese source said over 2,700 vehicles were destroyed. For example, both Land Rover and Renault lost an unspecified number of Discovery SUVs and Koleos CUVs, respectively.
The explosion also affected Toyota. Its research and design facility with joint-venture partner Sichuan FAW also suffered an unspecified amount of damage. Check out the video below for a clearer understanding of just how massive the explosions were!
Source: Autoevolution, Autoblog
