12 people have died after a huge fire engulfed a recently refurbished flat tower block in London.

Emergency services were called at 12.54am in the early hours of this morning to a fire in the Grenfell tower at the Lancaster West Estate in Kensington.

A total of 40 fire engines and around 250 firefighters attended the incident, which is still ongoing.

London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said: "London Ambulance Service have confirmed that a number of 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."

The Grenfell Tower was refurbished by contractor Rydon under a £8.7 million contract in 2015.

The scheme involved carrying out number of improvements to the community facilities and energy efficiency of the building, while additional new homes were created using vacant space.

In a statement, the contractor said: "We are shocked to hear of the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower and our immediate thoughts are with those that have been affected by the incident, their families, relatives and friends.

"Rydon completed a refurbishment of the building in the summer of 2016 for KCTMO (Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation) on behalf of the Council, which met all required building control, fire regulation and health & safety standards. We will cooperate with the relevant authorities and emergency services and fully support their enquiries into the causes of this fire at the appropriate time.

"Given the ongoing nature of the incident and the tragic events overnight, it would be inappropriate for us to speculate or comment further at this stage."

(LM/MH)