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Firefighters have rescued 20 people from a burning tower block after it was engulfed in flames.

More than 200 firefighters took part in a “significant search and rescue operation” which involved around 80 people, including children, being evacuated from their homes.

A further 20 people were said to have been rescued by firefighters after what they described as a “significant building failure”.

Speaking on Monday afternoon, London Fire Brigade Assistant Commissioner Patrick Goulbourne added that everyone had been accounted for and the fire was under control.

The block, described as a mixed-use residential and commercial building, was known to have “a number of fire safety issues”, according to the London Fire Brigade, and was covered in “non-compliant” cladding.

Scaffolding surrounding the building was in place to remove the cladding and a fire enforcement notice issued last year highlighted concerns inspectors had at the time.

The scene of the fire on Monday morning. Pic: UKNIP
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The scene on Monday morning. Pic: UKNIP

Pic: UKNIP
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Firefighters tackling the blaze overnight. Pic: UKNIP

Meanwhile, 70 firefighters were sent to a second fire across London, in Blackwall.

Half of a flat and a balcony on the 25th floor of a 45-storey building were burning, producing a large amount of smoke.

‘Major incident’ in Dagenham

Plumes of smoke could be seen rising into the sky in Dagenham as 40 fire engines and 225 firefighters responded overnight and into the morning.

Emergency services were called at around 2.44am and the first crews arrived at the tower block within five minutes.

Four patients were treated at the scene, and two were taken to hospital, the London Ambulance Service said.

Eyewitness: The time for answers will come, but help is more urgent

By Matthew Thompson, home and political correspondent, reporting from Dagenham for Sky News

As we arrived first thing this morning, the fire was smouldering, but it was a mere shadow of the inferno that had engulfed the building a few hours before.

Many residents fled with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

Those who have nowhere else to go have been moved to a leisure centre a mile or so away.

There, amid a mass of water bottles, foil blankets and plastic plates, families are huddled, shell-shocked, and facing an uncertain future.

Drilon Nezaj, carrying his 17-month-old daughter in his arms, told me his flat was directly above the source of the fire.

He’d been at a friend’s house for dinner when the baby had fallen asleep, so they decided to stay the night. “She saved our lives,” he said.

Another woman, Kasia, said she awoke in the night to “flames climbing up to our balcony”.

She and her partner got out, with their dog. But fighting back tears, she told me her flat is “all gone. The only thing I can think of is we’re safe. The rest can be replaced. We got out, luckily.”

The building itself has known fire safety issues.

It was in the process of having dangerous flammable cladding removed when the fire broke out.

There may well be a time for recriminations.

But for now, there are scores of people, many with young children, who need help, and somewhere to sleep.

The cause of the fire remains unknown. Emergency services had declared a “major incident”, which has since been stood down.

One local said they heard people “screaming” from their home a few hundred yards from the building as it caught fire overnight.

Pic: UKNIP
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Pic: UKNIP

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Smoke fills the air after tower block fire

‘I saw flames climbing up to our balcony’

Kasia Stantke, a resident of the building for six years, didn’t hear a fire alarm go off.

Instead, she told Sky News’ home and political correspondent Matthew Thompson she was woken up by banging.

“I got out of bed and looked out the window and I saw flames climbing up to our balcony.

“I woke my partner and said there’s a fire it’s spreading quickly.”

They got dressed, grabbed their dog, and fled.

“There was no fire alarm, nothing went off, when we ran out the flats we just saw some neighbours, we looked at each other, and said ‘are you okay?’ and tried to wake up a few others, but no fire alarms.”

Kasia told Sky News she didn't think she had a flat left to return to
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Ms Stantke told Sky News she didn’t think she had a flat left to return to

As she tried to knock on doors, Ms Stantke said she “couldn’t hear one neighbour” and added: “I hope they had gone away for the long weekend.”

She added she thought she wouldn’t have a flat to go back to, following the fire.

Mohammed, a sixth-floor resident, told Sky News he also didn’t hear a fire alarm go off and left the building only with the clothes on his back.

‘My daughter saved our lives’

One first-floor resident was absent at the time of the fire – he said his daughter falling asleep at his friend’s barbecue saved their lives as it meant he decided to stay the night, and not return home.

“I was at my friend’s house, I got a call saying my block was on fire,” Drilon Nezaj told Sky News.

He said his flat was located above the nursery in the building, where he was told the fire broke out.

Drilon Nezaj and his young daughter
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Drilon Nezaj and his young daughter

He continued: “I got invited to my friend’s barbecue yesterday, I didn’t want to go but he said ‘please please please’, so I said let’s go.”

He brought his 17-month-old daughter along and when she fell asleep, he decided to stay the night so he didn’t have to wake her up.

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‘I saw flames climbing up our balcony’

“So thank god, she saved our life. You couldn’t have gotten out from that fire from what I saw, no chance,” he added.

‘We have no clue what happened’

Dinesh Raj’s daughter was at a sleepover in the building with a friend’s family when the blaze broke out.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Raj said he got a call at around 3am and drove over and picked his daughter and friends up.

Dinesh Raj, speaking to Sky News
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Dinesh Raj, speaking to Sky News

“They had a six-month baby as well, so they managed to grab the baby and my daughter and get out of the building,” he said.

He added: “I think the majority [of residents] managed to step out before the fire started spreading.

“But everything they have is back in the building and we have no clue what happened.”

Pic: UKNIP
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Pic: UKNIP

A full evacuation

London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe said: “I am immensely grateful to the crews and officers who have operated in the most dangerous conditions to both rescue people and bring the incident under control despite being faced with a significant building failure.”

He added that drones and 64-metre turntable ladders were being used to tackle the fire.

A rest centre has been set up in the Becontree Heath Leisure Centre and residents in the surrounding area were advised to keep their windows closed due to smoke.

Police watch on as the fire rages
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Home Secretary Yvette Cooper issued a statement following the fire.

She said: “My thoughts are with all those affected by the major fire incident in Dagenham.”

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said he was in close contact with the fire brigade, who he praised for acting “swiftly”.

He added: “I urge local residents to follow LFB’s advice to keep windows and doors closed and for people to avoid the area where possible.”

A fire enforcement notice was issued regarding the building in April 2023.

Among the five issues highlighted was a “failure to provide and/or maintain adequate and clearly indicated emergency routes and exits”.

It isn’t clear whether it was complied with.

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Oasis announcement could be made this week

The building this morning. Pic: UKNIP
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Pic: UKNIP

Smoke continued to billow into the sky even as the fire was slowly brought under control
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Smoke continued to billow into the sky even as the fire was slowly brought under control

The cladding around the tower block is understood to be high pressure laminate (HPL) panels.

It was deemed non-compliant in July 2019 and is a compressed wood fibre which releases heat 25 times faster and burns 115 times hotter than non-combustible products, according to a study by the University of Central Lancashire, published in January 2019.

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Eight arrests in connection with two separate terrorism investigations

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Eight arrests in connection with two separate terrorism investigations

Eight men have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police in two unconnected but “significant” terrorism investigations.

In one operation on Saturday, counter-terror officers arrested five men – four of whom are Iranian nationals – as they swooped in on various locations around the country. All are in police custody.

The Met said the arrests related to a “suspected plot to target a specific premises”.

In an update shortly after midnight, the force said: “Officers have been in contact with the affected site to make them aware and provide relevant advice and support, but for operational reasons, we are not able to provide further information at this time.”

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Counter-terrorism policing, supported by police and colleagues from across the country, have conducted arrests in two really significant operations, both of which have been designed to keep the public safe from threats.

“There are several hundred officers and staff working on this investigation, and we will work very hard to ensure we understand the threats to the wider public.”

He refused to say if the plot was related to Israel, but described it as “certainly significant” and said “it is unusual for us to conduct this scale of activity”.

He also asked the public to “avoid speculation and some of the things that are being posted online”.

MI5 director general Ken McCallum said in October that the intelligence agency had responded to 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots since 2022. He warned of the risk of an “increase or broadening of Iranian state aggression in the UK”.

Read more: Terror arrests came in context of raised warnings about Iran

Children ‘petrified’ by armed police

Rochdale resident Kyle Warren, who witnessed one of the arrests at a neighbouring house, said his children had been playing in the garden when they came running into the house, saying a man in a mask had told them to go inside.

“Obviously, I was a bit worried,” Mr Warren told Sky News’ Lisa Dowd, and so he went into the garden to investigate.

“As we’ve come out, we just heard a massive bang, seen loads of police everywhere with guns, shouting at us to get inside the house.”

Kyle Warren said his children were 'petrified'
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Kyle Warren said his children were ‘petrified’

From upstairs in his house, he then heard “loads of shouting in the house” and saw a man being pulled out of the back of the house, “dragged down the side entry and thrown into all the bushes and then handcuffed”.

There were about 20 to 30 officers with guns, he believes.

“It’s just shocking, really. You don’t expect it on your doorstep.”

His daughters were “petrified… I don’t think they’ve ever seen a gun, so to see 20 masked men with guns running round was quite scary for them”.

Mr Warren, who only moved into his house a year ago, said he had “never really seen anyone going in or out” of the house and actually thought it was empty.

One suspect was arrested in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester. Pic: Sarah Cash
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One suspect was arrested in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester. Pic: Sarah Cash

One suspect was arrested in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester. Pic: Sarah Cash
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One suspect was arrested in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester. Pic: Sarah Cash

Arrests and searches around the country

The Met added officers were carrying out searches at a number of addresses in the Greater Manchester, London and Swindon areas in connection with the investigation.

It said those detained were:

• A 29-year-old man arrested in the Swindon area
• A 46-year-old man arrested in west London
• A 29-year-old man arrested in the Stockport area
• A 40-year-old man arrested in the Rochdale area
• A man whose age was not confirmed arrested in the Manchester area.

Passenger footage of a police van in Stockport over the terrorism arrest SQUARE OR PORTRAIT
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A 29-year-old man was arrested in the Stockport area

Terror arrests in separate investigation

Police also arrested three further Iranian nationals in London on Saturday as part of another, unrelated counter-terror investigation.

The suspects were detained under section 27 of the National Security Act 2023, which allows police to arrest those suspected of being “involved in foreign power threat activity”.

Read more from Sky News:
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Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “These were two major operations that reflect some of the biggest counter state threat and counter terrorism operations that we have seen in recent years.

“This reflects the complexity of the kinds of challenges to our national security that we continue to face.”

Earlier, she thanked police and security services in a statement, and called the incidents “serious events that demonstrate the ongoing requirement to adapt our response to national security threats”.

Last year, the government placed the whole of the Iranian state – including its intelligence services – on the enhanced tier of the new foreign influence registration scheme.

It means anyone asked by Iran to carry out actions for the state must declare it, or face prison time.

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Terror arrests came in context of raised warnings about Iran, with ongoing chaos in its own backyard

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Terror arrests came in context of raised warnings about Iran, with ongoing chaos in its own backyard

These are two separate and unrelated investigations by counter-terror officers.

But the common thread is nationality – seven out of the eight people arrested are Iranian.

And that comes in the context of increased warnings from government and the security services about Iranian activity on British soil.

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Counter terror officers raid property

Last year, the director general of MI5, Ken McCallum, said his organisation and police had responded to 20 Iran-backed plots presenting potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents since January 2022.

He linked that increase to the ongoing situation in Iran’s own backyard.

“As events unfold in the Middle East, we will give our fullest attention to the risk of an increase in – or a broadening of – Iranian state aggression in the UK,” he said.

The implication is that even as Iran grapples with a rapidly changing situation in its own region, having seen its proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, decimated and itself coming under Israeli attack, it may seek avenues further abroad.

More on Iran

The government reiterated this warning only a few weeks ago, with security minister Dan Jarvis addressing parliament.

“The threat from Iran sits in a wider context of the growing, diversifying and evolving threat that the UK faces from malign activity by a number of states,” Jarvis said.

“The threat from states has become increasingly interconnected in nature, blurring the lines between: domestic and international; online and offline; and states and their proxies.

“Turning specifically to Iran, the regime has become increasingly emboldened, asserting itself more aggressively to advance their objectives and undermine ours.”

Read more:
Anybody working for Iran in UK must register or face jail, government announces

As part of that address, Jarvis highlighted the National Security Act 2023, which “criminalises assisting a foreign intelligence service”, among other things.

So it was notable that this was the act used in one of this weekend’s investigations.

The suspects were detained under section 27 of the same act, which allows police to arrest those suspected of being “involved in foreign power threat activity”.

Those powers are apparently being put to use.

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Pictured: Boy killed in Gateshead industrial estate fire – 14 children arrested on suspicion of manslaughter

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Pictured: Boy killed in Gateshead industrial estate fire - 14 children arrested on suspicion of manslaughter

Tributes have been paid to 14-year-old Layton Carr who died in a fire at an industrial estate.

Eleven boys and three girls, aged between 11 and 14 years, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after the incident in Gateshead on Friday. They remain in police custody.

Drone view showing the aftermath of a fire at Fairfield industrial park at Bill Quay, Gateshead
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Police were alerted to a fire at Fairfield industrial park in the Bill Quay area

Firefighters raced to Fairfield industrial park in the Bill Quay area shortly after 8pm, putting out the blaze a short time later.

Police then issued an appeal for a missing boy, Layton Carr, who was believed to be in the area at the time.

In a statement, the force said that “sadly, following searches, a body believed to be that of 14-year-old Layton Carr was located deceased inside the building”.

Layton’s next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers, police added.

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Teenager dies in industrial estate fire

A fundraising page on GoFundMe has been set up to help Layton’s mother pay for funeral costs.

Organiser Stephanie Simpson said: “The last thing Georgia needs to stress trying to pay for a funeral for her Boy Any donations will help thank you.”

One tribute in a Facebook post read: “Can’t believe I’m writing this my nephew RIP Layton 💔 forever 14 you’ll be a massive miss, thinking of my sister and 2 beautiful nieces right now.”

Another added: “My boy ❤️ my baby cousin, my Layton. Nothing will ever come close to the pain I feel right now. Forever 14. I’ll miss you sausage.”

A third said: “Rest in peace big lad such a beautiful soul taken far to soon my thoughts are with you Gee stay strong girl hear for u always.”

Read more from Sky News:
Eight arrests in connection with two terrorism operations
Compensation scheme scrapped for child sexual abuse victims

Detective Chief Inspector Louise Jenkins, of Northumbria Police, also said: “This is an extremely tragic incident where a boy has sadly lost his life.”

She added that the force’s “thoughts are with Layton’s family as they begin to attempt to process the loss of their loved one”.

They are working to establish “the full circumstances surrounding the incident” and officers will be in the area to “offer reassurance to the public”, she added.

A cordon remains in place at the site while police carry out enquiries.

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