BEIJING: Four new fires broke out Friday in the devastation left by giant explosions in the Chinese port city of Tianjin last week, state media reported, as clean-up efforts continued.

New fires have repeatedly broken out on the site, which is scattered with smouldering chemicals and flammable substances, the official Xinhua news agency said. Pictures of the area have regularly shown smoke rising from various points.

One fresh blaze was in the depot where at least 3,000 cars were torched, and suspected to be caused by fuel in vehicle tanks, it said. There were fires at three other locations in the “central blast zone,” it added.

The explosions at a hazardous goods storage facility last week triggered a giant fireball and killed at least 116 people, officials said, with 60 others missing and hundreds more injured.

The blasts have also sparked fears of toxic pollutants contaminating the air and water of the city, which has a population of around 15 million people. Thousands of tonnes of hazardous chemicals were stored at the site, officials have said, including about 700 tonnes of highly poisonous sodium cyanide, a white powder or crystal which can give off lethal hydrogen cyanide gas.