video flashing phones lights from windows Grenfell Tower
Harrowing footage has emerged of trapped residents of the Grenfell Tower flashing torches, phones and turning their lights on and off in a desperate bid to get help.
A video from very early on Wednesday morning clearly shows someone on one of the top floors of the west London block of flats frantically switching their lights as the fire ravaged through the spine of a 27 storey block.
Trying to draw the attention of fire crews through mobile phones and flashing lights were some of a number techniques used by terrified residents vying to escape the deadly blaze.
Help: One resident on one of the top floors frantically switched their lights on and off to draw attention to their plight
A video from Tuesday night clearly shows someone on one of the top floors frantically switching lights as the fire ravages 27 storey block
Another video shows how some knot bed sheets together to form makeshift ladders or jump from the building in a desperate bid to escape the flames.
Pictures and video from the scene shows at least six sheets tied together and dangling from an open window after residents attempted to flee from the encroaching fire.
Other images show how frightened and trapped neighbours banged on their windows in a last-ditch attempt to catch the attention of rescuers.
One resident claims he saw a 'child on fire' jump from the 22nd floor of the Grenfell Tower block in west London as the blaze took hold.
The unnamed man said: 'The fire started happening on third floor, we called the fire bridge who came 20 minutes later, and then the whole thing just went up. An hour-and-a-half later I saw a kid on the 22nd floor on fire, he walked to the window, and he jumped.'
The fire that swept through the west London tower block in just 15 minutes after a fridge exploded could be one of the worst in British history amid fears nobody on the top three floors survived.
Terrified residents trapped in a burning tower block were forced to knot bed sheets together to form makeshift ladders or jump from the 27-storey building in a desperate bid to escape the flames
This terrifying picture capture the moment burning debris fall from the inferno at the Grenfell tower block
Twelve people are known to have died after fire engulfed the White Cit building at 1am in the early hours of Wednesday but Scotland Yard says the death toll is expected to rise significantly.
A community leader working to locate victims, who asked not to be named said: 'We have a list of missing people - there are so many. It's possible there are more than 50, possibly hundreds'.
Police would not confirm how many people are not accounted for because the building is still on fire 12 hours after it started.