HONG KONG: A huge fire that engulfed a Hong Kong residential estate has killed at least 36 people and left more than 200 unaccounted for in the city’s worst blaze in decades.
The fire, which started on Wednesday afternoon and was still burning in the early hours of Thursday, shocked the Chinese financial hub, which has some of the world’s most densely populated and tallest apartment blocks.
Huge flames first took hold on bamboo scaffolding on several apartment blocks of Wang Fuk Court, which contains nearly 2,000 flats in eight towers in the northern district of Tai Po and was reportedly undergoing estate-wide maintenance.
City leader John Lee on Thursday updated the death toll to 36 and said that 279 people were unaccounted for.
Twenty-nine people were hospitalised, with seven in critical condition.
An AFP reporter heard loud cracking sounds, possibly from the burning bamboo, and saw thick plumes of smoke billowing from the buildings as flames and ash reached high into the sky.
A 65-year-old resident surnamed Yuen said he had lived in the estate for more than four decades and that many of his neighbours were elderly and might not be mobile.
“The windows were closed because of the maintenance, (some people) didn’t know there was a fire and had to be told to evacuate via phone calls by neighbours,” Yuen told AFP.
“I’m devastated. There is loss of property and loss of life, and even a firefighter has died.”
Nine people died at the scene and four more, including a 37-year-old firefighter, were certified dead at hospital, the government said earlier.
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