A resident who was trapped in the blazing inferno that ripped through a 24-storey tower block live-tweeted her escape.
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huge fire broke out at Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West Estate in west London in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The London fire brigade said 200 firefighters and 40 engines were sent to the scene to tackle the inferno.
The woman, whose Twitter handle is @rsrzy, posted her first tweet around 1:40am saying she was “stuck in this block” in response to a tweet from an onlooker saying firefighters were “struggling to bring the fire under control”.
“Can’t leave my house because I’ll die from the smoke,” she continued as concerned followers offered advice.
An hour later she posted another tweet saying people were jumping out of windows in a bid to escape the huge blaze.
“Guys I don’t know what to do. I’m stuck in the block. Panicking because people are jumping out the window and I can’t leave my house at all.”
Around 4am she then tweeted a picture from outside the tower block and reassured worried followers that she was safe and well.
“I’m safe guys, please don’t worry.”
Flames and smoke billow as firefighters deal with a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London, Britain June 14, 2017. After the blaze broke out, onlookers said they could hear people screaming from inside the building.
“More screams for help as the fire spreads to another side of the building,” one wrote on Twitter.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared the fire a major incident. Fabio Bebber, tweeting live from the scene, said “people are still trapped on their windows screaming for their lives saying they can’t get out.”
He added: “We can see how quick the fire spreads via the external panels. It’s unbearable hearing someone screaming for their lives at Grenfell Tower.”
One video captured residents trying to escape by using bedsheets tied together as a rope.
Flames and smoke billow as firefighters deal with a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London, Britain June 14, 2017. Another showed people flashing lights in their rooms to attract attention.
George Clarke, the presenter of Amazing Spaces, told Radio 5 Live: “I was in bed and heard ‘beep, beep, beep’ and thought, ‘I’ll get up and run downstairs as quickly as I could’.
“I thought it might be a car alarm outside and saw the glow through the windows.
The fire has been burning for more than three hours and stretches from the second to the 27th floor of the building. “I’m getting covered in ash, that’s how bad it is. I’m 100 metres away and I’m absolutely covered in ash.
“It’s so heartbreaking, I’ve seen someone flashing their torches at the top level and they obviously can’t get out.
“The guys are doing an incredible job to try and get people out that building, but it’s truly awful.”
Smoke and flames rise from a building on fire in London, Wednesday, June 14, 2017 The fire is believed to have started around 1.16am – it’s unclear how it started.
A Met Police spokesman said: “Police were called at 1.16am on Wednesday, 14 June to reports of a large fire at a block of flats in the Lancaster West Estate, W11.
Flames and smoke billow as firefighters deal with a serious fire in a tower block at Latimer Road in West London, Britain June 14, 2017. “Officers, the London Fire Brigade and the London Ambulance Service are currently at the scene. An evacuation process is underway.
“At this stage we are aware of two people being treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.
“Cordons are in place and it is advised that the estate and surrounding area is avoided.”