A 27-story skyscraper has gone completely in flames in the night near Latimer Road, in London. About 200 firemen with dozens of vehicles are trying to rescue the residents. At the moment twelve are confirmed dead. A London police spokesman confirmed that seventy-five people were taken to the hospital and it is not excluded that some people were also trapped in the tower.

The building is in the west of London on Latimer Road and there are concerns that the tower could collapse. Witnesses talk about burns, smoke poisoning and possibly even falls during the evacuation.

On social media, local residents looked frightened, including that of an evacuated family who lost sight of their 13-year-old daughter.

The burning images

The alarm was given to the local 1 a.m and from the second floor up all the wing of the building was destroyed.

Hundreds of shared images on social networks have shown a nearly burning building. Several witnesses said they heard screams from building and a person claims to have seen a man plummet. Helpful cries were heard from the inside of the flamboyant place that would house about 120 apartments of different size.

The Eyewitnesses

"I hear cries of help as the flames flare up," he wrote among others on Twitter Fabio Bebber, from a nearby home. Others have heard shouting "at the fire" and saw falling debris. "It was scary and very ugly, I've never seen anything like that, it's just a huge fire," said another witness, Tim Downey at BBC. There was a high smoke column visible from the rocks in much of central London.

The building, which has one of its facades on Latimer Road, opposite the Metropolitan underground station, was built in the early 1970s and completed in 1974. But work had recently been started for a large resettlement. The Police also evacuated several buildings near the skyscraper.

Sadiq Khan, The Mayor of London

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has called the gigantic fire that is devouring much of the Grenfell Tower, "a serious accident" pointing out that all the available reinforcements were sent overnight.

Also, send the Hazardous Area Response Team's rescue units. The flames attacked all 24 floors of the building and about 200 firefighters are engaged in fire extinguishing. The flames seem to have lost intensity compared to the first images of the bullet but are still clearly visible. Live TV images show firefighters still busy directing water jets from the auto-scale.