At least 128 dead after fire rages through seven Hong Kong skyscrapers
The Hong Kong government reported dozens of deaths with hundreds more people missing in the inferno
At least 128 people have been killed after a huge fire ripped through seven tower blocks in Hong Kong – trapping locals in their apartments.
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Local police have arrested three men on suspicion of manslaughter, according to reports.
At least 128 people are now known to have died in the tower block fire, authorities say.
79 people are known to have been injured and 16 bodies remain inside the buildings
Hong Kong police superintendent Eileen Chung said:“We have reason to believe the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties”.
Flames ripped through the 31-floor residential high-rises of Wang Fuk Court – home to 4,000 people in the Tai Po district – with almost 800 fire fighters sent to try and contain the inferno.
It's thought bamboo scaffolding and a protective mesh helped the fire spread.
There have been multiple reports of people trapped in the buildings and on roofs. It's unclear how many people remain unaccounted for.
More than 900 people sought refuge at temporary shelters overnight as the blaze tore through the tower blocks.
The cause of the fire is still unclear, but officials believe renovations using flammable material and scaffolding helped spread what has now become the deadliest blaze in Hong Kong in six decades.
Firefighters have reportedly brought the fire "basically under control", but emergency teams are working to extinguish the remaining flames.
Video from the scene showed the tightly packed buildings ablaze, with flames coming out of many of the apartments' windows.
Firefighters were aiming water at the blaze from high up on ladder trucks. They have declared it a category five fire, the most serious.
The raging fire sent up a column of flames and thick smoke as it spread on bamboo scaffolding and construction netting that had been set up around the exterior of the complex in the city's Tai Po district.
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Records show the housing complex consisted of eight blocks housing almost 2,000 apartments.
The Hong Kong government reported four deaths and said three other people were taken to hospital.
Two of the people injured were in critical condition and the other person was stable, a brief statement said.
Police said they had received multiple reports of people trapped in the affected buildings.
Local media said that one of the dead was a firefighter, but that could not be immediately confirmed.
The blaze was reported mid-afternoon and upgraded to the second highest level of severity, the Fire Services Department said.
Tai Po is a suburban area in the New Territories, in the northern part of Hong Kong and near the border with the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.
Bamboo scaffolding is a common sight in Hong Kong at building construction and renovation projects, though the government said earlier this year that it would start phasing it out for public projects because of safety concerns.