Several people are believed dead as a major fire on Wednesday engulfed a 24-storey apartment complex in west London housing hundreds, with a resident who escaped likening the disaster to a "horror movie". Six bodies were found but the toll is expected to shoot up.
Desperate occupants of the burning Grenfell Tower flocked to apartment windows and screamed for help, many holding their children. Witness Jody Martin said: "I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out in the window... hearing screams."
More than 70 people were in hospitals, over 20 in critical condition, officials said.
More than 12 hours after the fire was seen in the complex, over 250 firefighters continued to battle the leaping flames and thick, choking smoke. London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said: "In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale."
Up to 600 people were believed to have been inside the 120 flats in north Kensington when the blaze began shortly after Tuesday midnight, The Telegraph reported.
Authorities said the death toll was expected to rise.
Commander Stuart Cundy of the Metropolitan Police said: "I can confirm six fatalities. This figure is likely to rise during what will be a complex recovery operation over a number of days."
Media reports said the 24-storey appeared it could collapse any time, with cladding already falling to the ground. Explosions could be heard. Windows kept shattering.
Witnesses described people trapped in the burning tower screaming for help and yelling for their children to be saved, the BBC reported. Some people threw their children from windows and others jumped from upper floors.
Many got trapped on upper floors as flames spread rapidly through the building.
One resident who fled from the seventh floor with his girlfriend and young daughter said wrong official advice may have led many residents not to leave the complex.
Michael Paramasivan said he ignored official advice to remain inside.
"If we had stayed in that flat, we would have perished. My gut instinct told me just to get the girls out. I wrapped the little one up because of the smoke and I just got them out," the BBC quoted him as saying.
Some residents reportedly attempted to use bin bags as makeshift parachutes in a desperate attempt to escape. Firefighters rescued large numbers of people, but London Mayor Sadiq Khan said "a lot" of people were unaccounted for.
Cotton said the cause of the fire was not yet known.
Pictures from the scene showed flames engulfing the block and a plume of smoke visible across the capital.
As an investigation into the cause of the blaze began, residents reported that fire alarms had not sounded and that they were told to "stay put" in their flats, The Telegraph reported.
The London Mayor said "questions need to be answered as soon as possible".
Councillor Nick Paget-Brown, who represents the area in which Grenfell Tower is located, said the tower contains some 120 individual apartments, many of which house young families, meaning the number of people trapped could run into hundreds, Efe news reported.
Police closed off roads nearby and asked people to avoid the area.
Paul Munakr, who lives on the seventh floor, managed to escape. "As I was going down the stairs, there were firefighters, truly amazing firefighters that were actually going upstairs, to the fire, trying to get as many people out of the building," he told the BBC.
Appeals were made on social media for news of missing friends and relatives.
GURDWARAS, MOSQUES, CHURCHES HELP SURVIVORS OF LONDON FIRE
Gurdwaras, mosques and churches in West London have opened their doors to offer assistance to the survivors of a huge fire that engulfed a 24-storey residential tower block killing six persons and injuring over 70 others.
“Sikh gurdwaras in London have started collecting and distributing spare clothes, toys, toiletries for Grenfell Tower evacuees,” Harjinder Kukreja, a Sikh philanthropist, said.
Sikh Gurudwaras in London have started collecting and distributing spare clothes, toys, toiletries for #GrenfellTower evacuees! #Share pic.twitter.com/TT1cTWZXRp
— Harjinder S Kukreja (@SinghLions) June 14, 2017
“The evacuees only have what they’re wearing. We need to support them with spare necessities,” he was quoted as saying by metro.co.uk.
London’s Sikh community was also praised for helping people in the wake of the UK terror attack.
While St Clements Church in Treadgold St has been turned into an evacuation centre to support Grenfell Tower residents who have managed to escape the blaze.
“If you can help with clothes, food, blankets, toiletries etc please donate,” Labour MP David Lammy said.
The area around Grenfell Tower is home to a large number of Muslims. It has been reported that Muslim communities have rushed to the assistance of affected residents.
“Local Mosque in #latimerroad area open doors for help.
Really appreciated by locals. #GrenfellTower #LondonFire,” Syed Ajmal Kazmi said.
One resident, Mohammed, who escaped with his family, said they were up late because of it being Ramazan so they were able to escape the building quickly after smelling smoke.
It is believed that Muslims in the building, up at 1:00 am due to Ramazan, acted as lifesavers, alerting other residents sand helping people to get out of the burning building.
The fire is believed to have broken out on the second floor of the tower block housing 120 flats over 20 residential levels and four community levels and had soon engulfed the entire building.
‘SAVE MY CHILDREN’: EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF LONDON BLAZE HORROR
One woman lost two of her six children when trying to escape a burning London tower block early on Wednesday morning while others tried to throw their children to safety, witnesses said.
Bystanders and residents reported scenes of panic.
"Everyone was in shock, everyone was fleeing, screaming," Michael Paramasivan, a resident of the block, told BBC radio.
"I spoke to a lady that lives on the 21st floor. She has got six kids. She left with all six of them. When she got downstairs there was only four of them with her. She is now breaking her heart," he added.
A bystander, Samira Lamrani, said she saw a baby thrown from a ninth or 10th floor window.
"People were starting to appear at the windows, frantically banging and screaming," she told London's Evening Standard newspaper.
"The windows were slightly ajar, a woman was gesturing that she was about to throw her baby and if somebody could catch her baby. Somebody did, a gentleman ran forward and managed to grab the baby," Lamrani continued.
Another witness, Tamara, told the BBC she also saw people trying to throw their children to safety.
"There's people, like, throwing their kids out: 'Just save my children, just save my children!'," she said.
"There's people at their windows: 'Help me, help me, help me!' You can see the fire go into the house and into the last room that they're in, and just engulfing their whole apartment." Reuters was unable to verify the witness accounts
