Thirteen people have been killed in a fire that spread across multiple high-rise apartment buildings in a Hong Kong housing complex, the city’s fire services said Wednesday, with countless others still trapped inside.
Nine people were declared dead on the scene and four others who were sent to the hospital were later confirmed dead, authorities told reporters.
Bystanders look on as flames engulf the buildings.Credit: AP
Video from the scene showed at least five of the 31-storey towers close to each other ablaze, with flames coming out of many of the apartment windows. Firefighters were aiming water at the intense flames from high up on ladder trucks.
The raging fire sent up a column of flames and thick smoke as it spread on bamboo scaffolding and construction netting that had been set up around the exterior of the Wang Fuk Court estate in Tai Po district, in the New Territories. Records show the housing complex consisted of eight blocks with almost 2,000 apartments housing about 4,800 people.
Hong Kong fire services confirmed at least 13 people were killed in the blaze.
The dead included one firefighter, and another was being treated for heat exhaustion, Fire Services Department Director Andy Yeung told reporters.
Police said they had received multiple reports of people trapped in the affected buildings.
Lo Hiu-fung, a Tai Po District Council member, told local TV station TVB earlier Wednesday that most of the residents trapped in the fire were believed to be elderly people.