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, Reuters reported. Flames raced through the high-rise Grenfell Tower block of apartments in the north Kensington area after taking hold around 1 a.m. 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.
