Videos capture early stages of Hong Kong tower block firepublished at 11:53 GMT
11:53 GMT
Emma Pengelly and Yi Ma
BBC Verify
Two videos posted on the social media platform Threads show the initial stages of yesterday’s Hong Kong tower block fire, which has killed at least 55 people and left hundreds of others unaccounted for.
By matching fence lines, trees and exterior walls with Google street-level images of Wang Fuk Court, we’ve confirmed the clips were filmed near an entrance of Wang Cheong House, the easternmost block in the complex.
We know they show the beginning of the fire because a video filmed later from farther away, shows only Wang Cheong House burning. The fire then spread to six other Wang Fuk Court blocks.
This also matches the account from the deputy director of Hong Kong Fire Services, Derek Armstrong Chan, who told reporters the blaze started at Wang Cheong House.
The person who posted the videos on Threads also described what they saw, they said:
At 14:51 local time (06:51 GMT) they heard “some banging sounds” before seeing the fire
At 14:57 the first firefighters arrived, by which time the fire had spread to other floors
We’re continuing to analyse videos being shared online to build a timeline of how the fire spread.