2nd LD-Writethru: Death toll in Tianjin blast rises to 121

The death toll from a warehouse blast in north China's Tianjin has risen to 121, including 67 firefighters and seven policemen, authorities said at a press conference on Saturday.

Friday afternoon the figure was 116. A total of 54 people remain missing, including 37 firefighters and four policemen, more than a week after powerful explosions in Tianjin Port on the night of August 12.

A total of 640 people remain in hospital, including 48 critically injured. More than 151 people have been discharged.

Tianjin Police have conducted DNA tests on the 121 killed in the blast, only two of whom are yet to be identified.

Deng Xiaowen, head of the city's environment monitoring center, said that through Friday, no new pollutants were detected at 18 air quality monitoring stations outside the exclusion zone, and pollutants that had been found did not exceed safe levels.

Water samples from seven out of 27 locations within the zone contained excessive levels of cyanide. The worst was up to 54.6 times higher than safe levels. All cyanide-tainted water is being contained in the exclusion zone.

So far, the blasts have not contaminated surface water outside the blast site or offshore waters, according to Deng. Endi