Authorities in London say they “have absolutely no idea” how many people are still missing after a fire engulfed a high-rise apartment Wednesday, according to NBC News.
One man who was overtly shaken up said he had “lost my wife on the staircase” during the chaos.
“I don’t know what happened to her. I’m trying to find out where she is,” the man dressed in a bathrobe told reporters, NBC News reports.
Several people congregated at a nearby community center to wait for any news on the whereabouts and health of their loved ones and relatives. At least 12 people are reportedly dead, and 78 injured from the massive blaze.
While London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton said emergency responders were able to save people in “very large numbers,” they “have absolutely no idea” how many others are dead or still missing, or need saving.
A bystander says he witnessed “people dangling children out the window to try and get them to safety” while the inferno perniciously grew. It is estimated that hundreds of residents were in the building known as the Grenfell Tower, which was built in the 1970s and has around 130 individual living units.
Another onlooker, 32-year-old James Wood, told NBC News that he saw kids in one of the rooms “at the window screaming for help” until the “room eventually went up in flames.” (RELATED: Massive Cyber Attack Hits 16 British Health Facilities, Causing Chaos In Emergency Rooms)
“In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never, ever seen anything of this scale,” said Cotton. “This is a major fire that’s affected all floors of the 24-story structure from the second floor upwards.”
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