'Frantically banging and screaming': Witnesses say children dropped from highrise in London fire

They banged on windows, screamed for help, droppedchildren from smoky floors in a desperate attempt to save them.

Terrified residents of the Grenfell Tower in London said there was littlewarning of the inferno that engulfed their highrise apartment building and left 12 people dead a toll that officials said would almost certainly rise.

The blaze early Wednesday in the 24-storey building in westLondon's North Kensington district also injured dozens and left an unknown number missing.

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More than 200 firefighters worked through the night and were still finding pockets of fire inside later in the day. A huge plumeof smoke wafted across the London skyline and left a burned-out hulkin the working-class, multi-ethnic neighbourhood.

Survivors told of frantic attempts to escape during the nighttimefire.

SamiraLamranisaid she saw a woman try to save a baby by dropping the childfrom a window "on the ninth or10thfloor."

"People were starting to appear at the windows, frantically banging and screaming," she said. "The windows were slightly ajar, a woman was gesturing that she was about to throw her babyand if somebody could catch her baby.

"Somebody did. Agentleman ran forward and managed to grab the baby."

Joe Walsh, 58, said he saw someone throw two children out of a window from the fifth or sixth floor.

TiagoEtienne, 17, said he spotted about three children between four and eight years old being dropped from an apartment around the15thfloor.

Other witnesses said they saw people jumping from upper floors or tying sheets together to try and escape.

"The flames, I have never seen anything like it. It justreminded me of 9/11," saidMunaAli, 45. "The fire started on the upper floors.... Oh my goodness, it spread so quickly. It hadcompletely spread within half an hour."

I sat there watching my house burn down.- Ruks Mamudu

Someresidents told harrowing tales of their own escapes andfrustration at not being able to help neighbours.

Ruks Mamudu, 69, said she ran to safety down one flight of stairsto the ground floor from her apartment wearing only her purplepyjamas and bathrobe. She and her grandson sat outside the building,helplessly watching those trapped on higher floors.

"I sat there watching my house burn down and watching people cryfor help who couldn't come down," Mamudu said.

'Smoke everywhere'

"I looked through the spy hole and I could see smokeeverywhere and the neighbours are all there. There's a firemanshouting 'Get down the stairs,'" one of the block's residents,Michael Paramasivan, told BBC Radio. "It was an inferno.

"As we went past the fourth floor, it was completely thickblack smoke. As we've gone outside, I'm looking up at the blockand it was just going up. It was like pyrotechnics. It was justunbelievable how quick it was burning."

Witnesses describe horror seeing people trapped in apartment fire

7 years ago

Duration 0:40

Many stood helpless as people in London highrise screamed from windows

Nassima Boutrig, who lives opposite the building, said she was awakened by sirens and smoke so thick that it filled her home.

"We saw the people screaming," she said. "A lot of people said 'help, help, help.' The fire brigade could only help downstairs. It was fire up, up, up. They couldn't stop the fire."

'There were no fire alarms'

Other survivors spoke of confusion and conflicting advice given to residents, many of whom had been advised in advance not to leave their apartments in the event of a fire.

There were no fire alarms ... I'm lucky to be alive.- EdwardDaffarn

"There were no fire alarms," said Edward Daffarn 55, who was warned by a neighbour to flee. "There was heavy smoke in the hallway. I could not find the stairs."

Daffarnsaid residents had complainedfor years to the Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council about building safety, to no avail.

"I'm lucky to be alive. A neighbour's smoke alarm went off and another neighbour phoned and told me to get out," he said. "I consider this mass murder."

The manager of the building said it wastoo early to speculate the cause of the fire and what contributed to its spread.

David Taylor, who lives near the building, told CBC News reporterThomas Daiglethat he was awoken at 1:15 a.m. by a loud noise, then noticed "flames shooting up the side of the building."

He said he "was absolutely mesmerized and shocked because there were people in the window. I was shouting at them 'Get out of the building,'and they're waving at us. It took four hours for the whole building to go up in flames, and there's loads of kids at the top. Makes your guts feel funny."

Adam Ali, another nearby resident, said it was the worst fire he hadever seen. "That looks like an image from a war zone," he told CBC News. "Doesn't look like something you'd see in a city like London.