Rescuers on Monday continued to search for victims of Hong Kong’s worst fire since 1948 as the death toll approached 150, with 200 people still missing.
The authorities combed through three of the seven residential towers destroyed by fire last Wednesday after protective nets, tarpaulins and plastic sheets used for maintenance caught alight, although the official cause has not been established.
Hundreds of the 4,600 people living in the complex were placed in temporary shelters.
Police had already searched four towers, finding the bodies of people who collapsed in stairwells and on rooftops as they desperately tried to flee to safety from the Wang Fuk Court complex, where, according to Hong Kong Security Chief Chris Tang, the fire alarms were not working properly.
Local authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the blaze as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the complex.
Thousands of people turned out over the weekend to mourn the victims, with lines of people stretching more than a kilometre along a canal beside the complex in Tai Po in the New Territories.
This came as it was revealed by Reuters that residents were told by authorities last year they faced "relatively low fire risks" despite repeated complaints about the danger of ongoing renovation works.
On Thursday, Hong Kong's leader, John Lee, announced a HK$300-million support fund for housing complex residents, with each household promised emergency relief funds of HK$10,000.
The fire is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze, and has prompted comparisons to London’s Grenfell Tower inferno, which killed 72 people in 2017.
