The warehouse at the centre of last week’s explosions in the Chinese city of Tianjin received a licence to handle hazardous chemicals just two months before the disaster, Chinese media has reported. The state-run news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday that Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics, the company that owns the warehouse, did not have legal permission to handle such dangerous materials between October 2014 and June 2015. But the company had continued to work with hazardous chemicals, Xinhua reported, citing an unidentified company official.

Local media reported that that the president and vice-chairman of the company are among the 10 Rui Hai workers who were detained by authorities as early as last Thursday, the day after the blasts.

…Residents have been on high alert since news of the toxic chemicals circulated, with local media reports showing many wearing gas masks and accompanied by armed police when returning to their homes to pick up belongings. Authorities are concerned that the rain will react with up to 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide discovered at two locations at the hazardous goods storage facility…[and] 800 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and 500 tonnes of potassium nitrate, according to local reports…Tianjin’s vice-mayor He Shushan admitted that sodium cyanide had been found as far as 1km from the blast site.