Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday that more than 50 of its employees were injured by explosions Wednesday night in the Chinese port of Tianjin in which 56 people died.
"We heard that more than 50 employees who live in the vicinity, including in a housing company, were injured," Toyota said in a statement.
Toyota said it was unaware of any death of the employee.
The explosions caused broken windows in two dealerships, one operated by FAW Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd., and one operated by GAC Toyota Motor Co., Ltd., Toyota said, adding that both dealers were now temporarily closed.
The company said it was still checking details of the exact number of injured employees and the extent of their injuries.
The global automakers including Volkswagen AG and Hyundai scrambled today to assess the damage to the vehicles and after two massive explosions rocked China's largest facility of automatic import center.
Explosions erupted in a warehouse storage of volatile chemicals in the northeastern city of Wednesday were so strong that damaged buildings at least a mile away.
The explosions killed at least 56 people, including a dozen firefighters, state media said. About 700 people were injured.
French automaker Renault SA said nearly 1,500 of its imported cars stored in a warehouse at the port had been burned.
VW, Hyundai nearby
Almost 2,750 vehicles were Volkswagen endangered, it was reported. One of the stores VW was located near the site of the explosions.
In a company statement issued Thursday, Volkswagen said it still had no official count of how many vehicles were destroyed. While the port of Tianjin is down and damaged vehicles are evaluated, the German automaker will make deliveries through the ports of Shanghai and Guangzhou, the company said.
"Right now, we have already begun to assess the state of our vehicles in all storage facilities in the port of Tianjin," Volkswagen said in a statement. "Under no circumstance damaged in this terrible accident is the car market."
Photographs from the scene showed rows of beetles and other cars of the VW brand badly burned by the explosion.
"We have a group working in the area for more information and deals mainly with the welfare of our employees," said a spokesman for VW.
Approximately 40 percent of China's imported cars to pass through the port of Tianjin, or more than half a million units in 2014, according to the official Xinhua news agency. China imported 372.4 billion yuan ($ 60.8 billion) in cars last year, official data shows.
Subaru maker Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd said more than 100 vehicles were imported from Japan and were waiting for customs clearance at a warehouse had been damaged by the broken windows. The store, which does not belong to Fuji Heavy, is about 1.2 miles from the site of the explosion, he said.
Other damage
Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota also said they were reviewing their parked cars around the port.
South Korea, Hyundai Motor Corp. and Kia Motors Corp. had a total of 4,000 cars near the site of the explosion, but had no specific details on the extent of the damage, the companies said.
BMW AG said it has two vehicle distribution centers near the port but the damage was unknown because the area had been cordoned off by the authorities.
Mazda Motor Corp. said more than 50 imported Japanese cars were also damaged, with paint and scratches. A nearby showroom was closed on Thursday after their shattered windows, he said.
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