London Tower Fire: At least 12 people confirmed dead in north Kensington blaze

Some bodies have been removed from the smouldering remains of the building, which contains 120 flats thought to be home to between 400 and 600 people.

Commander Stuart Cundy of the Metropolitan Police said: "Sadly I can confirm that there are now 12 people that have died that we know of.

"This is going to be a long and complex recovery operation and I do anticipate that the number of fatalities will sadly increase beyond those 12."

London Tower Fire: Glasgow responds with supplies for those left homeless as 12 people confirmed dead

Fire crews are continuing to tackle "pockets of fire" in the building with many people still unaccounted for.

Steve Apter, director of safety and assurance at London Fire Brigade, said: "I can confirm I have had firefighters manage to get through particularly arduous conditions up to the top floor."

London Fire Brigade said it had rescued 65 people from the building.

London Tower Fire: Glasgow responds with supplies for those left homeless as 12 people confirmed dead

Mr Cundy added: "Whilst we may have accessed every floor that is not the same as a full search of the whole building, and as I said while we currently sadly have 12 fatalities, I do believe that figure will rise and sadly I don't anticipate that there will be further survivors."

NHS England said 74 patients were treated in six hospitals across London. Thirty four patients remain in hospital including 18 who are in critical care.

London Tower Fire: Glasgow responds with supplies for those left homeless as 12 people confirmed dead

There have been calls for a major investigation amid questions about how the fire spread so rapidly through the block.

London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton earlier told reporters: "This is an unprecedented incident. In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never ever seen anything of this scale."

Prime Minister Theresa May was said to be "deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life" and newly appointed police and fire minister Nick Hurd will chair a meeting of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat to co-ordinate the response.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said "searching questions" need to be asked about what happened, suggesting spending cuts could have contributed to the deadly fire.

He said: "If you deny local authorities the funding they need, then there is a price that's paid."

Built in 1974, Grenfell Tower was recently refurbished at a cost of £8.6 million, with work completed in May last year.

Rydon, the firm that carried it out, said its work "met all required building control, fire regulation, and health and safety standards".

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: "There will be a great many questions over the coming days as to the cause of this tragedy and I want to reassure Londoners that we will get all the answers."

Nick Paget-Brown, leader of Kensington and Chelsea Borough, said: "Clearly, looking further ahead there needs to be a full investigation into the cause of this fire, why it started and why it appears to have spread so rapidly."

London Tower Fire: Glasgow responds with supplies for those left homeless as 12 people confirmed dead

London Fire Brigade said the cause of the fire is still being investigated, but several residents reported one man had said it started in his faulty fridge.

Witnesses said the fire spread rapidly and traumatic accounts have emerged of the desperate attempts made by residents to flee the flames.

Samira Lamrani said she saw a woman try to save a baby by dropping it from a window ''on the ninth or 10th floor'' to waiting members of the public below.

Tiago Etienne, 17, heard people pleading for help as the building was engulfed in flames.

She said: "I saw children being thrown out of the building from as high as about the 15th floor. They were young - aged probably between four and eight. I saw three thrown out.

"I think they were being thrown out for the firefighters or police to catch, but I couldn't see from where I was who was at the bottom and what they were catching them in."

Local councillor Judith Blakeman, who lives opposite the tower, rushed outside when she heard about the blaze at 5am.

She said: "Neighbours had been watching it all night, they said the cladding went up like a nightdress by a fire - it just went whoosh."

Residents who escaped complained there had been no fire alarm, with many relying on neighbours to wake them as the blaze spread, and said official advice in the event of a fire had been to stay inside.

Michael Paramasivan, who was in his seventh floor flat with girlfriend Hannah West, 23, and her daughter Thea, five, said: "If we'd listened to them and stayed in the flat we'd have perished."

A residents' action group said its warnings about safety had fallen on "deaf ears".

A blog post from Grenfell Action Group in November said "only a catastrophic event" would expose the concerns residents had.

The group said there was one entry and exit to the tower during improvement works and it had issues with evacuation procedures.

Mr Paramasivan, 37, told the Press Association: "There were explosions everywhere you looked, lots of bangs, blue gas coming out everywhere you looked.

"About 12 floors up I saw three children waving from a window and then there was just an explosion and they disappeared.

"They were three kids, they were banging on the windows, you could see their silhouettes and then bang, it just went up."

Flowers had been placed beside the taped-off police cordon, which was being guarded by uniformed officers.

Attached to a mixed bouquet was a card with the message: "Love and prayers to the families and victims. Justice has to be done. People before money. RIP."