Hundreds of people live in burning building in London

Authorities hope residents of an apartment building staying up late to celebrate Ramadan will have discovered the fire early and escaped in time.

A resident of the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in White City, London, was lucky to escape the fire with his family after staying up past midnight to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.Metroreport

"We were still awake at that time and left the door open. The neighbors ran over and told us to get out immediately," he said.Mohammed told Sky News,"I didn't even have time to grab my phone. I'm so lucky that my family got out safely."

Kensington and Chelsea councillor Nick Paget-Brown described the fire as "very, very intense".

"This fire is devastating. Hundreds of residents could have been inside. The question now is exactly how many people are trapped in the fire," Mr Brown said.

The fire started on the north side of Grenfell Tower at around 1am and quickly spread. By 7am this morning, black smoke had engulfed all four sides of the building. More than 200 firefighters and dozens of fire engines were on the scene.

Police said dozens of people,Most of them were suffocated by smoke,have been taken to five nearby hospitals for treatment and the number of injured is expected to rise rapidly. The London Ambulance Service is updating the number of injured. The current figure is 50. However, there is no official death toll yet.

"We don't know if we will have a roof over our heads anymore. We don't know what will happen next," one resident worried.

Local councillor Robert Atkinson said there were 125 households living in Grenfell Tower and the authorities had a responsibility to provide new accommodation for them.

"They lost everything. Now they are homeless, penniless," he said.

According to VNE