Add Category
Updated
Grief is turning to outrage in the wake of London's deadly Grenfell Tower apartment block fire, with British Prime Minister Theresa May confronted by protesters and a crowd of angry locals storming the local town hall.
Key points:
- Locals storm town hall accusing authorities of forcing low-income families into sub-standard housing
- PM Theresa May struggles to overcome accusations she lacked compassion for victims
- Outside insulation panels installed on Grenfell may have helped fire spread, experts say
Tensions were high two days after the overnight fire gutted the huge housing block, killing at least 30 people and leaving dozens missing and hundreds homeless.
Ms May, who was criticised a day earlier for not meeting with locals and survivors, visited the area again on Friday to meet with some locals inside a church.
But the Conservative leader still struggled to overcome accusations that she lacked compassion because she had failed to meet with victims on her first visit to the devastated site.
Police surrounded Ms May as she left the church, where a crowd of angry protesters had gathered, shouting "shame on you" and "coward".
Did cheap cladding panels fuel the fire?
Firefighters using drones and sniffer dogs continued to search the burned-out housing block, that looms over the low-income community in west London, on Friday.
The fire, which started just before 1:00am on Wednesday, surprised many as they slept and the speed with which it spread shocked fire experts.
Britain's Press Association reported that some 70 people were still missing after the fire.
Metropolitan Police commander Stuart Cundy responded to fears that the number of dead could exceed 100 by saying: "I really hope it isn't."
Engineering experts say outside insulation panels installed on the 24-storey Grenfell Tower may have helped the fire spread rapidly from one floor to the next.
The Guardian newspaper reported that contractors installed a cheaper, less flame-resistant type of panelling in the renovation that ended in May 2016.
Crowd storms town hall
Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall became another flashpoint on Friday, with protesters storming the building, accusing authorities of ignoring them and of forcing low-income families to live in sub-standard housing.
Scuffles broke out near the building, with demonstrators chanting "we want justice" as they surged toward the doors.
London has a chronic housing shortage even in the best of times, and those left homeless by the fire — already angry over what they see as government inequity and incompetence — fear being forced out of the British capital.
The Grenfell Tower housed about 600 people in 120 apartments.
Royal family visit, PM announces millions for survivors
Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William visited a west London site where community groups have been gathering supplies for those affected by the tower fire disaster.
The Queen met with volunteers and expressed her sympathies to families of victims of the blaze.
After meeting with Grenfell survivors on Friday, Ms May announced a 5-million-pound ($8-million) fund to help them and expressed sorrow for their plight.
The package included a guarantee to rehouse people as close as possible to where they previously lived — a poor neighbourhood surrounded by extreme wealth.
"[This aims] to give the victims the immediate support they need to care for themselves and for loved ones," Ms May said.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said people were frustrated by the lack of information about the missing and the dead as well as a lack of coordination between support services.
"The scale of this tragedy is clearly proving too much for the local authority to cope with on their own," Mr Khan said in an open letter to Ms May.
Police investigating whether crimes were committed
London Police has launched an investigation to determine whether any crimes contributed to the blaze.
Ms May on Thursday announced a public inquiry while Mr Khan called for an interim report on the fire to be published this summer.
Grenfell Tower is a public housing project owned by the local government council and managed by a non-profit known as the Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation.
The group last year completed a 10-million-pound ($16.8-million) renovation that included new outside insulation panels, double-paned windows and a communal heating system.
Aluminium composite panels essentially consist of two thin layers of aluminium sandwiched around a lightweight insulating material.
Standard versions use plastic such as polyethylene for the core, while more expensive variants use fire-resistant material.
ABC/wires
Topics: fires, disasters-and-accidents, government-and-politics, world-politics, community-and-society, united-kingdom
First posted