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Witnesses to an inferno tearing through a high-rise tower block in West London have described seeing people trapped in the building.
There is still no official word on how many residents managed to escape the fire in the Grenfell Tower, but officials have confirmed six people have died.
Tim, who lives 600m from the fire, told ABC News 24 he had heard locals claiming that children had been thrown from windows as the fire raged.
He said the scene was one of absolute devastation and shock among the residents who got out.
"They just sat there and watched, watched their home burn. There's nothing they can do about it," he said.
Tim said the "sheer scale of the fire has to be seen to be believed.
"I don't know how on Earth you would ever get in it. It's a very densely populated block of flats, as is the whole area," he said.
"It was about 2:00am and it was just a sheer volume of noise, lots of sirens and shouting and screaming and helicopters, then kind of 'what on Earth is going on?'
"Then I looked out the window and just saw the tower which is at the end of our road — the whole of one side was just completely in flames, like 24, 25 storeys just up in flames and I have never seen anything that extensive before.
"You could still see people in the other side of the building flashing their phone light to try to get attention.
"There's a huge amount of debris that is falling off this building. The fire has sort of calmed a bit but it's just falling to pieces. The building is literally falling to pieces as I'm watching.
"I think it was built in the early '70s, and also recently re-clad.
"The fire seemed to have gone underneath these panels. They just slip off and just fall down. I have just watched dozens just fall off as I'm speaking to you right now.
"We're talking probably about a two-foot wide panel, flames, just falling probably 20 storeys."
Sofia, who lives near the tower block, told BBC Radio she feared firefighters were struggling to rescue people from the building.
"I can't see any ladders extending into the building," she said.
"There's loads of people screaming for help, and they're not getting the help.
"It's just burning through and they are dying."
Ambulances standing idle as debris 'rains down'
BBC business editor Simon Jack, who lives 360 metres away from Grenfell Tower, told the broadcaster the first he knew of the fire when a helicopter flew past his window.
"I thought it was a police helicopter and they're trying to find someone.
"I opened the window and saw this plume of smoke against a very bright summer morning and it is quite an incredible sight. It's going many hundreds of feet into the air.
"The fire on this side where I am is raging fiercely indeed.
"You can hear the structure and the integrity of this building begin to groan. There's shattering, you can hear the groaning, of the building, there's got to be a chance that this building will collapse."
"I'm very surprised the police cordon is this close to the building.
"What is most worrying, perhaps, is that there are fleets of ambulances here and on this side of the building, at least, there is no sign of them being used to treat people.
"I know some people have got out before the building was engulfed, but what I can see, is these ambulances at the moment are totally lying idle.
"There seems to be a lack of organisation on the ground.
"[There is] lots of black debris raining down in an area of hundreds of yards in every direction. Really distressing sight."
Narrow roads could have hampered access
Another man, Abdul, told BBC Radio Five Live that he "did not see anyone who had escaped".
"But I saw a young lad, may be 18 or 19 years of age, and he was in an hysterical situation, he was crying. Apparently his parents or members of his family live in the tower and he was unable to get through to them.
"I saw people being treated on the road, on the street, by paramedics.
"I saw two firemen walking away from the scene towards their fire truck and they looked absolutely exhausted.
"They looked tired, with black smoke covering their faces.
"…The emergency vehicles I think were finding it difficult to get through obviously because of the narrow roads around the area, but also because people were parking in awkward places.
"It is a catastrophic situation.
Osama, who lives near the tower, told BBC Radio Five Live: "I've heard stories of families that just definitely didn't make it out, but that's just what people are saying on the street".
"We are now watching one man on the 11th floor who is behind the window and has been there for about one hour and we can see him clearly at the window, near where the hydraulic platform is and we are just looking to see what will happen to that man."
Topics: fires, disasters-and-accidents, united-kingdom
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