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 The death toll from the two blasts last on Wednesday rose to 114,
officials said. More than 700 people were injured and 70 are
missing, most of them fire fighters, the official Xinhua news agency
said.
The explosions sent fireballs high into the sky and hurled flaming
debris across the industrial area at the world's 10th-largest port,
burning out buildings and shattering windows kilometers away.
Xinhua said there had been another small explosion on Monday. Flames
could later be seen but smoke had cleared.
As teams specialized in handling hazardous chemicals scrambled to
clean up the site, Tianjin's deputy mayor, He Shushan, confirmed
there was about 700 tons of deadly chemical sodium cyanide in the
warehouse that blew up.
"Most was concentrated in the core" blast area, he said. Workers
would finish a search of a 3-km (2-mile) perimeter to identify and
clean up chemicals by the end of the day, he said.
 About 200 protesters gathered outside a hotel where officials were
briefing journalists.
"This is not a demonstration. This is simply our only channel to
attract the government's attention. Up until now they have not
acknowledged us," said Li Jiao, whose home was close to the blast
site.
About 6,300 people have been evacuated from around the site in the
city of about 15 million and the gateway to China's industrial
northeast.
About three dozen police and military personnel blocked the crowd
from entering the hotel. Some protesters chanted for the government
to "buy back" their homes and others carried signs that read "fix
our homes, that's our demand".
There were no clashes.
Another protester, also surnamed Li, said he had taken out an
800,000 yuan ($125,000) loan to buy an apartment that was so badly
damaged it was leaning over. He said his family had not moved in but
would now never live there for fear of health risks
"Most of the people who bought those homes are young, white-collar
workers like me. It isn't a small amount of money for us," he said.
Credit Suisse analysts said the explosions could generate insurance
losses of between $1 billion and $1.5 billion, citing initial
estimates from media.
Paramilitary police accompanied residents back to their homes to
clear them of belongings, the official microblog of the People's
Liberation Army Daily reported.
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China's top prosecutor, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, has
opened an investigation into the explosions.
Deputy mayor He said officials were confident those responsible
would be held to account but he did not discuss compensation.
"We believe that the investigation team can determine the cause of
the accident, in short order determine and firmly punish violations
of law, and in this way ... give victims and the people a full
explanation," He said.
A man surnamed Zhang, whose building was about 600 meters from the
warehouse, said his apartment was completely destroyed.
"The government should be regulating this for sure," Zhang said.
"It's their responsibility. They had one eye open, one closed when
it came to the company."
Officials said environmental standards were still "basically
guaranteed" and there were contingency plans to prevent rain from
creating dangerous gases or spreading contamination.
Global automakers are struggling to assess the damage to their
vehicles at China's largest entry point for imported cars.
Volkswagen AG <VOWG_P.DE > said about 2,700 of its imported cars
were damaged.
Industrial accidents are not uncommon in China after three decades
of rapid growth.
(Additional reporting by Jake Spring and Sui-Lee Wee in BEIJING,
Writing by Michael Martina; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel)
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