Six dead and more than 20 critical after London tower block fire

By Kylie MacLellan and Lina Saigol

Fire engulfed a 24-storey housing block in central London in the early hours on Wednesday, killing at least six people and injuring at least 50 others in an inferno that trapped residents as they slept.

Flames raced through the high-rise Grenfell Tower block of apartments in the north Kensington area after taking hold around 1am (UK time) and witnesses reported many residents desperately calling for help from windows of upper floors.

More than 200 firefighters, backed up by 40 fire engines, fought for hours to try to bring the blaze, one of the biggest seen in central London in recent years, under control.

In late morning, London police said six people had been killed and the death toll was likely to rise.

Fire-fighting crews still had to reach the top four floors of the building where several hundred people live in 130 apartments.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

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The block had recently undergone an 8.7 million pound refurbishment of the exterior, which included new external cladding, replacement windows and curtain wall facades.

Plumes of black smoke billowed high into the air over the British capital for hours after the blaze broke out.

Residents rushed to escape through smoke-filled corridors after being woken up by the smell of burning.

London Fire Brigade said the fire engulfed all floors from the second to the top of the 24-storey block. There were reports that some residents threw themselves out of windows to escape the flames.

"In my 29 years of being a fire fighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale," London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton told reporters.

Safety questions

London mayor Sadiq Khan said the fire raised questions over safety of high-rise blocks like Grenfell Tower.

The BBC reported that a political deal between the government of Prime Minister Theresa May and a small Northern Irish party could be delayed because of the aftermath of the fire.

More than 10 hours after the fire broke out London fire brigade said it was still working to bring the fire under control, though the building was not in danger of collapse.

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Firefighters rescued large numbers of people from the 43-year-old block, a low rent housing estate which rubs alongside up-scale parts of the Kensington area and highlights the disparities of wealth in the British capital.

London Ambulance Service said more than 50 people had been taken to hospital.

The local council of Kensington and Chelsea, which owns the block, said it was focusing on supporting the rescue and relief operation.

It said the causes of the fire would be fully investigated.

Police closed the A40, a major road leading out of west London, while some parts of London's underground train network were closed as a precaution.