China suspends or closes 50 websites for spreading rumors about Tianjin blasts

China has suspended or permanently closed 50 websites for spreading rumors after the ?TianjinBlast?, China's cyberspace watchdog said on Saturday.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) made the announcement on its website that it had decided to shut down 18 websites permanently including chefu.com and 127q.com, and suspend 32 websites for one month for their irresponsible management.

The rumors were mostly related to the false estimation or assumption of the number of people who lost their lives in the explosions. "More than 1,000 people were killed," said one of the websites being punished. Another website claimed that "no one survived in the radius of 1,000 meters."

According to official sources, the actual number of people killed in the blast Wednesday night has been 104 so far.