Twelve people have died in a west London tower block fire and the number of deaths are expected to rise, police have said.

Firefighters were called to Grenfell Tower, in north Kensington, at 00:54 BST and are still trying to put out the fire.

People who escaped the fire at the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in north Kensington spoke of others trapped and screaming for help, with some holding children from windows and others jumping from upper floors.

More than 70 have been taken to hospital, 20 of them are critically injured. The Met Police has said the number dead is likely to rise.

London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said there had been a “number of fatalities” but could not say how many due to the size and complexity of the building.

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She told reporters at the scene: “This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale.”

Pictures from the scene showed flames engulfing the block and the plume of smoke visible across the capital, while others showed residents looking out of windows in the block.

The leader of Kensington and Chelsea Borough Nick Paget-Brown said “several hundred” people would have been in the block when the fire broke out.

Actor and writer Tim Downie, who lives around 600 metres from the scene in Latimer Road, said he feared the block could collapse.

He said: “It’s horrendous. The whole building is engulfed in flames. It’s gone. It’s just a matter of time before this building collapses.

“It’s the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen. I just hope they have got everyone out.

“People have been bringing water, clothes, anything they’ve got to help, out to the cordon.

Jody Martin said he got to the scene just as the first fire engine was arriving at Grenfell Tower, in Latimer Road.

He told the BBC: “I grabbed an axe from the fire truck, it looked like there was a bit of confusion about what to do. (BBC/Yahoo News)

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