China leaders urge professional Tianjin response

President Xi Jinping and other top Communist Party of China (CPC) leaders have issued a call for hard work and professionalism in response to the Tianjin explosions, after hearing a report on the rescue and follow-up work on Thursday.

Xi presided over a meeting of the most senior members of the CPC Central Committee's Political Bureau convened to hear a report by a team set up by the State Council, China's cabinet, to investigate the blasts.

In a statement issued after the meeting, the leaders urged authorities to heighten their sense of responsibility for public safety. They also demanded thorough investigation into the cause of the blasts, which killed 114 people and have left hundreds more hospitalized.

Last Wednesday night, two explosions ripped through a warehouse in north China's Tianjin Municipality where hundreds of tonnes of toxic chemicals were stored, including roughly 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide.

The Thursday statement said saving lives and treating the injured should be prioritized, and that more efforts must be made to clean up the site, check for environmental damage and release information. Those responsible for the incident must be held responsible according to the law, it added.