Tianjin blasts death toll rises to 159, another 14 missing

Rescuers clean up debris at the warehouse explosion site of Tianjin, north China, Aug. 31, 2015. 

TIANJIN, Sept. 1-- The death toll from the Tianjin warehouse explosions rose to 159 on Tuesday with 14 people still missing two weeks after the blasts, according to rescue authorities.

The dead include 95 firefighters, 11 policemen and 53 civilians. The missing include nine firefighters and five civilians.

Hundreds more remain in the hospital.

Two blasts ripped through a warehouse at around 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 12 in Tianjin Port, where large amounts of toxic chemicals were stored, including around 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide.

More than 300 primary and middle schools in the Binhai New Area, where the port is located, opened on Monday for the new semester as scheduled, and 15 out of 16 schools damaged in the explosions have been fully repaired, local officials said.

On Monday, pollutant levels in the air outside the exclusion zone were not reported to be excessive, but high levels of cyanide were detected in water samples from inside the exclusion zone, with the worst about 31 times the level officially deemed safe.