London fire: 65 people missing or feared dead, toll expected to rise

Police commander hopes the toll doesn't go up to 'triple' figures

London Police on Friday estimated 65 as the number that it feared were either missing or dead in London's tower block fire, as reported by The Sun. 

When asked, on Thursday, whether the death toll could exceed 100, police commander Stuart Cundy said, "I'd like to hope that it isn't going to be triple figures."

Nearly 78 people were injured, and 34 remain in hospitals across London — 18 of them are in critical condition.

Scotland Yard said the death toll of 17 is expected to rise further as the emergency services have lost hope of rescuing any more people alive from the building.

London Fire Brigade firefighters worked through the night in order to account for whole families that are still missing in the huge fire at the Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West Estate in Latimer Road.

About 600 people were believed to have been inside the tower's 120 flats, many of them asleep, when the blaze ripped through the building at midnight. Children and a baby were seen being thrown out of the windows to be caught by emergency workers and members of the public below.

The building, dating back to 1974, is owned by the local government council and houses some of the poorer sections of the working class in the north Kensington area of London, one of London's richest boroughs in terms of funding and amenities.

Kensington and Chelsea Council admitted it had received complaints about the refurbishment works, after a residents' action group said its warnings about safety had fallen on "deaf ears".