Thousands of small dead fish wash ashore near Tianjin extent monument is constructed in China

long after it was announced that cyanide levels have exceeding national standards at the site of China’s deadly extent in Tianjin, thousands of dead fish washed ashore at the nearby Haihe River prompting even more concern over the environmental consequences of the blast.

Thousands of the dead fish seen washing up four miles from the Tianjin blast site quickly went viral. “‘If the dead fish are related to the extent, then this is a regional disaster.

The Tianjin municipal government said the fish had been examined and and no cyanide compounds had been detected.

Deng Xiaowen, who is head of Tianjin’s environment monitoring center, said during a press conference on Thursday that it’s not uncommon for fish to die in the summer due to poor water quality. Cao Shuxiang, from the fisheries bureau in Tanggu district told Xinhua “it’s not rare to see dead fish offshore in summertime due to a lack of oxygen in the water caused by excessive nutrients.”

But local residents had their doubts.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Wang Lei, 47, a freight company manager told the New York Times as he looked at mass of dead fish on the shore of the river “There has to be a link between the dead fish and the blast. What else could explain the death of so many?