HONG KONG: Firefighters battled a blaze at a high-rise residential complex in Hong Kong for the second day on Thursday, as the death toll rose to 65 in one of the deadliest blazes in the city's modern history.
Thick smoke continued to pour out of some apartments in the Wang Fuk Court complex, a dense cluster of high-rise towers housing thousands of people in Tai Po district, a northern suburb near Hong Kong's border with the mainland. Flames could still be seen inside the buildings Thursday evening.
Hong Kong leader John Lee said contact had been lost with 279 people earlier Thursday. Rescues were continuing in some of the towers, but authorities did not provide updates on the missing or how many were still trapped inside the ravaged buildings Thursday during a press conference.
Firefighters have been trying to control the flames since midafternoon Wednesday, when the fire started in bamboo scaffolding and construction netting and then spread across seven of the complex's eight buildings. Fires in four buildings had been effectively put out, with the remaining three towers under control, authorities said Thursday afternoon.
One firefighter was among the dead, and 70 people were injured, authorities said. About 900 people were evacuated to temporary shelters overnight.
Resident Lawrence Lee was waiting for news about his wife, who he believed was still trapped in their apartment.
“When the fire started, I told her on the phone to escape. But once she left the flat, the corridor and stairs were all filled with smoke and it was all dark, so she had no choice but to go back to the flat,” he said, as he waited in one of the shelters overnight.
Winter and Sandy Chung, who lived in one of the towers, said they saw sparks fly around as they evacuated Wednesday afternoon. Although they were safe, they were worried about their home. “I couldn't sleep the entire night,” Winter Chung, 75, told The Associated Press on Thursday.