At least 36 people have been killed after a fire engulfed several buildings at a high-rise residential complex in Hong Kong, officials have said.

Hong Kong leader John Lee said another 279 people were reported missing. He said 29 people remained in hospital.

About 900 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters after Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in years broke out at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in the city’s Tai Po district.

Fire chiefs said high temperatures made it challenging for crews to mount rescue operations.

Mr Lee said the fire was “coming under control” shortly after midnight.

The blaze was upgraded to a level 5 alarm, the highest level of severity, as night fell.

The dead included one firefighter, officials said earlier.

A number of firefighters were said to have been hurt while trying to tackle the flames as they ripped through the 31-storey towers.

Records show the Wang Fuk Court site consisted of eight blocks with almost 2,000 apartments housing around 4,800 residents, including many elderly people. It was built in the 1980s and has recently been undergoing a major renovation.

The fire, which broke out at 2.51pm local time, had spread on bamboo scaffolding and construction netting set up around the exterior of the complex.

It was not known how the fire started, but officials said it began at the external scaffolding of one of the buildings before spreading inside and to nearby buildings, likely aided by windy conditions.

Firefighters have been seen aiming water at the intense flames from high up on ladder appliances.

Pictures showed thick grey smoke billowing out from the buildings as emergency services battled to control the blaze.

Flames and smoke were still shooting out of many windows as night fell.

Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed condolences to the firefighter who died and extended his sympathies to the families of the victims, according to state broadcaster CCTV. he also urged efforts to minimise casualties and losses.

Tai Po is in the northern part of Hong Kong and close to the border with the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.

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Bamboo scaffolding is a common sight in Hong Kong at building construction and renovation projects.

However, the government said earlier this year it would start phasing it out for public projects because of safety concerns.

It was the deadliest fire in Hong Kong in years, following the deaths of 41 people in a commercial building in Kowloon in November 1996.

A woman has been jailed for life in New Zealand for murdering her two children, whose bodies were found in suitcases in an abandoned storage unit more than three years ago.

Hakyung Lee, born in South Korea, was convicted in September after admitting using anti-depressant medication to kill her children, aged six and eight, in 2018.

Their bodies were discovered in the storage unit when its new owners were sorting through its contents after buying it in an online auction in August 2022.

Lee – a New Zealand citizen – had money troubles and stopped paying rent on the Auckland storage unit.

The 45-year-old was extradited to New Zealand in late 2022, after fleeing to South Korea shortly after the murders and changing her name.

Her lawyers claimed the killings happened after she “descended into madness” following the death of her husband in 2017, and on Wednesday, argued that a life sentence would be unjust given her mental health issues.

But prosecutors said there was no evidence Lee was suicidal at the time of the killings, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Judge Geoffrey Venning rejected calls for a lesser penalty, but he did approve compulsory treatment at a secure psychiatric facility on the condition that Lee would return to prison once deemed mentally fit, the newspaper reported.

The judge told Lee: “You knew your actions were morally wrong… perhaps you could not bear to have your children around you as a constant reminder of your previous happy life.”

Lee was sentenced to life imprisonment and must serve a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

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Detective Inspector Tofilau Faamanuia Va’aelua said: “Yuna and Minu would have been 16 and 13 today.

“Our thoughts are with the wider family today for the tragic loss of these two young children.”

Jimmy Sei Wook Jo, the children’s uncle, was in court, where a lawyer read a statement on his behalf.

“I never imagined such a profound tragedy would ever befall our family,” the statement said, according to local news outlets.

“I feel like I failed to look after my niece and nephew.”

Donald Trump has claimed Russia is “making concessions” in talks to end the Ukraine war – and that Kyiv is “happy” with how talks are progressing.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he flew out to his Florida estate for Thanksgiving, Mr Trump said “we’re making progress” on a deal and said he would be willing to meet with both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy once they are close to an agreement.

He also said his previously announced deadline of Thursday, which is Thanksgiving, was no longer in place – and that the White House’s initial 28-point peace plan, which sparked such concern in Kyiv, “was just a map”.

Asked if Ukraine had been asked to hand over too much territory, Mr Trump suggested that “over the next couple of months [that] might be gotten by Russia anyway”.

Moscow’s concessions are a promise to stop fighting, “and they don’t take any more land”, he said.

“The deadline for me is when it’s over,” he added. “And I think everybody’s tired of fighting at this moment.”

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Before boarding the plane, Mr Trump claimed only a few “points of disagreement” remain between the two sides.

Mr Trump’s negotiator Steve Witkoff will be meeting with Mr Putin in Moscow next week, the president said, while American army secretary Daniel Driscoll is due to travel to Kyiv for talks this week.

The chief of Ukraine’s presidential staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote: “Ukraine has never been and will never be an obstacle to peace. We are grateful to the US for all its support.

“The meeting between the presidents will be thoroughly and promptly prepared on our part.”

Zelenskyy warns against ‘behind our back’ deal

Yesterday, a virtual “coalition of the willing” meeting that featured Ukraine’s allies took place, which was attended by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.

In a speech, Mr Zelenskyy told attendees: “We firmly believe security decisions about Ukraine must include Ukraine, security decisions about Europe must include Europe.

“Because when something is decided behind the back of a country or its people, there is always a high risk it simply won’t work.”

A joint statement from coalition leaders Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, and Friedrich Merz said they had agreed with Mr Rubio “to accelerate joint work” with the US on the planning of security guarantees for Ukraine.

But a Ukrainian diplomat has warned major sticking points remain in the peace deal being thrashed out – primarily the prospect of territorial concessions.

A warning from the Kremlin

Meanwhile, Moscow has stressed that it will not allow any agreement to stray too far from its own objectives.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned any amended peace plan must reflect the understanding reached between Mr Trump and Mr Putin over the summer.

“If the spirit and letter of Anchorage is erased in terms of the key understandings we have established then, of course, it will be a fundamentally different situation,” he said, referring to the two leaders’ meeting in Alaska.

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As negotiations continue, so have Russian attacks, with Kyiv hit by a barrage of missiles and hundreds of drones early yesterday morning.

Seven people were killed with power and heating systems disrupted, as residents sheltered underground.

Meanwhile, three people died and homes were damaged after Ukraine launched an attack on southern Russia.

‘A critical juncture’

French President Emmanuel Macron has said peace efforts are gathering momentum, but “are clearly at a critical juncture”.

And during the annual White House turkey pardon ahead of Thanksgiving, Mr Trump told reporters: “I think we’re getting close to a deal. We’ll find out.

“I thought that would have been an easier one, but I think we’re making progress.”