Name: Hundreds still missing after Hong Kong apartment blocks fire | BBC News
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Firefighters in Hong Kong are continuing their search for survivors as at least 55 people are confirmed dead and almost 300 people are still missing after a major fire that tore through several high rise apartment blocks.

These are the pictures from earlier today.

You can still see smoke rising from the building complex.

People have been working through the night trying to reach residents potentially trapped on the upper floors.

And police have arrested three men from a construction firm on suspicion of manslaughter over flammable materials left at the site during maintenance work.

The anti corruption body in Hong Kong has also launched an investigation.

The fire began on Wednesday afternoon local time at Wang Phuk Court, a complex in the Taipo neighborhood of Hong Kong.

It eventually spread to eight buildings in the complex, forcing thousands of residents to spend the night in shelters.

Fire crews have said that blazes in four out of the eight apartment blocks have been put out and three fires are under control.

Here are some live shots of those apartment blocks.

In the Taipo district of Hong Kong, efforts are still underway.

Firstly to put out the flames in a number of the buildings and also to rescue people who are believed to still be in those buildings.

We know that the fire broke out at 10 to 3 local time on Wednesday and as you can see there still very much feeling the effects in Hong Kong.

Well, a few local residents spoke to the media earlier, ringing doorbells, knocking on doors, alerting the neighbors, telling them to leave.

That's what the situation was like the whole time.

When my son called, I opened the window and saw firefighters already sapped the ladder.

Then I went door to door knocking and shouting fire, Fire.

Laura Westbrook is a Hong Kong based journalist and gave us this update.

As you can see behind me, firefighters still spraying these buildings with water.

This operation having gone for many, many hours now with firefighters really working to bring this fire under control.

As I've been standing here, I have been able to taste the smoke and you have noticed a black smoke of being pouring off these buildings.

It has gotten less and it does appear to be largely under control.

Hundreds of firefighters have been sent to the scene.

According to authorities, at least 55 people have died and hundreds of residents have been have been evacuated to emergency shelters.

I was at one of those shelters earlier and I saw people lying on mattresses with duvets in a sports center with some snacks around them.

But really with very Little and a lot of people are very distressed.

They're very anxious as the firefighters continue to work to put this fire out.

Earlier, the city's fire department spokesperson told us about the challenges they're facing.

Our firefighters need to conference the high temperature to proceed to the fire ground one layer by one layer.

It is very difficult for us and the area of the fire ground or the domestic unit is not big.

So we need to deploy a limited or optimize our manpower to perform our firefighting and rescue operation.

In short, we are trying our best and we will not give up any chance to pick up to save lives.

That's latest from the fire department spokesperson in Hong Kong.

And we now return to the those live shots of the One Foot Court building, home to some 4,600 residents.

We can also speak now to our reporter who's there at the scene, Martin Yip.

Now Martin, you've been reporting on this for many hours now.

The reality is that the fire seems to be dying down finally, but

still there are smoke spilling and the firefighters are taking no chance.

They are still spraying with high power cannons, trying to contain the whole thing.

They did say they are aiming to have the fire under control by the evening.

And the sun is about to set in Hong Kong in rain, roughly half an hour or so.

So we are going into a second night of this fire fighting and rescue operation at this moment.

How is the rescue operation going, Martin?

So the press conference just happened a few hours ago that they are still trying to locate people.

They don't have any update in terms of figures of how many people have actually been missing.

But they insisted on sparing no efforts like you just heard from, from the officer from the press conference.

And we are also seeing volunteers bring me bringing in all sorts of surprise for those who are in need, those who have lost homes.

On another front, local, local media outreach, the Indonesian Consulate General in Hong Kong are confirming that at least two Indonesian domestic helpers have died in this incident.

That's according to multiple local media reports.

But we are waiting for direct confirmation from the consulate.

But that really means this fire is now somehow an international incident.

And of course an investigation is also taking place into how the, how the fire began.

Well, so we are talking about not just one, but

two investigations here because what is about the fire itself?

Three men have been arrested by the Hong Kong police, incidentally, suspicion of manslaughter.

They are said to be a senior or senior management people of a construction firm that is contracted to do this renovation work for this some 40 year old housing is tight.

Their offices have been raided by the police this morning.

Just a few moments ago, the Independence Commission Against Corruption, Hong Kong's graft, announced they will launch their own investigation as well into whether this very work has any abnormalities if corruption, things like that are involved.

So it's two investigations going on at the same time on criminal grounds.

Martin, thank you very much for bringing us the latest there.

That's Martin Yip, our reporter in Hong Kong.

And the live updates on our live page right now on the BBC news website and mobile app, all the latest with what's going on with the major fire in Hong Kong.

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Hundreds still missing after Hong Kong apartment blocks fire | BBC News

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