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London Fire Brigade have confirmed that there have been a number of fatalities and more than 50 people have been taken to five hospitals, following the devastating blaze which took place overnight on the 27 storey Grenfell Tower in North Kensington.

Smoke from the fire can still be seen on the skyline across West London after 200 firefighters fought the blaze throughout the night from when it broke out around 1am.

In a statement on a Facebook, assistant commissioner Dan Daly said: "This is an unprecedented situation, with a major fire that has affected all floors of this building, from the second floor up.

“Over 200 firefighters and officers are attending this incident, with 40 fire engines and a range of other specialist vehicles, including 14 fire rescue units in attendance.

“Based on the level of resource that were needed at this fire we declared it a major incident in the early hours of this morning.

“London Fire Brigade’s Control room took multiple calls to this incident, with the first received at 00.54am.

“First fire crews were on site in under six minutes.

“Crews wearing breathing apparatus have been working in extremely difficult conditions to rescue people and bring this major fire under control.

“London Ambulance Service have confirmed that currently 30 people have been taken to five hospitals.

“At this time I am sad to confirm that we now know that there have been fatalities. I cannot confirm the number at this time and as you will appreciate with a fire of this size, affecting such a large building it would be unhelpful of me to speculate further.

“The cause of the fire is not known at this stage, and clearly we will be here all day and will be in a providing further updates, working with the police and ambulance service.”

“Further information for the public will be made available shortly, including advice for those concerned about those they are worried about and the emergency services will be working with all agencies, including the local authority to support all of those affected by this incident.”

At 8.15am, London Ambulance Service Assistant Director of Operations, Stuart Crichton issued this update: "We have now taken over 50 patients to five hospitals across London following the incident at Grenfell Tower, Lancaster West Estate, W11. Our thoughts are with everyone affected.

"Over 100 of our medics are working hard to respond to this incident, including ambulance crews, advanced paramedics, advanced trauma teams from London's Air Ambulance and those staff managing the incident in our special operations centre. In addition, our hazardous area response team are also on scene.

"A major incident has been declared and we continue to work closely with other members of the emergency services at the scene.

"Members of the public who are concerned about friends and relatives should contact the police Casualty Bureau on 0800 096 1233.

"As always, we urge Londoners to only call us in a genuine emergency and to call NHS 111 for urgent healthcare advice."

TfL is advising travellers to check

Routes 23, 52, 70, 228, 295, 316 and 452 are on diversion

 

The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said in a brief statement on Twitter that it was a “major incident”.