It’s like something out of a horror movie: curiosity leads to shock, then horror, then outright panic.
American Daniel Van Duren has shot what may be the most intense footage yet of the frenzied moments before, during and after Wednesday’s devastating explosion in the Chinese port city of Tianjin.
He’d originally set up his camera to try and catch the Perseid meteor shower when the disaster unfolded.
“It was incredible. We didn’t know what was happening. … Then the power went out to our building,” Van Duren told NBC News.
A rapid succession of explosions late Wednesday – one equal to 21 tons of TNT – killed at least 56 people, injured more than 720 and left several firefighters missing.
In pictures: One day after the Tianjin explosion
They were sparked by a fire at what authorities said were shipping containers containing hazardous material at a warehouse, and they struck a mostly industrial zone late at night – otherwise the death toll could have been much higher.
But the warehouse was close enough to residences to appear out of compliance with safety regulations, raising questions about whether the facility had been properly authorized.
Van Duren’s recording begins from the 34th-storey window of an apartment building close to the warehouse. Initially, he believes the blaze to be a gas station fire.
But moments later, he witnesses the first of two massive blasts he would later describe as being like “a small nuclear bomb”.
Then a second explosion sent Van Duren and his girlfriend scrambling out of their apartment and down the stairs amid a haze of smoke, sirens, and outright panic.
Authorities have not said what caused the explosions, saying only that they originated at the warehouse owned by Ruihai International Logistics.
Its website says the company is authorized to handle chemicals ranging from flammable gases and liquids, including compressed natural gas and ethyl acetate, to chemicals that explode on contact with water, including sodium cyanide and calcium carbide.
READ MORE: What we know about the hazardous chemicals stored at the Tianjin blast site
With files from the Associated Press
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