London Fire - Leaves Six dead Several Injured

According to CNN- Witnesses described the Horror.
As the flames engulfed Grenfell Tower in West London, people were seen waving for help from the windows, and attempting to escape.

At least six deaths were confirmed early Wednesday after a blaze ripped through a high-rise apartment block in the British capital as residents slept. At least 74 people were injured, according to authorities.

More than 250 firefighters battled the west London inferno through the night.

Local resident Tim Downie told NBC News he saw “people dangling children out the windows to try and get them to safety” as flames spread upward.

Witness Samira Lamrani said one woman wrapped a baby up “in some sort of thick blanket” and dropped the tot from around the 9th floor. “Miraculously the baby just sort of dropped in a straight line, and a guy just ran forward and the baby fell into his arms,” she added.

Several others recounted watching people jumping from Grenfell Tower.

Local officials believe that several hundred people were in the building, which dates back to the 1970s. The high-rise had a “stay put” policy in the event of a fire — with residents urged to shut their windows and doors and await rescue.

London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton called it an “unprecedented incident,” adding that a “number of fatalities” had been confirmed. Police later put the death toll at 6, but warned that figure was likely to grow.

“In my 29 years of being a firefighter, I have never, ever seen anything of this scale,” Cotton said. “This is a major fire that’s affected all floors of the 24-story structure from the second floor upwards.”

She highlighted that “very large numbers” were rescued by emergency crews early on. But almost nine hours after the blaze broke out, Cotton admitted “we have absolutely no idea” how many people remained unaccounted for.

Michael Paramasivan was wearing only underwear and a robe when he fled the seventh floor about 35 minutes after the blaze was reported.

In the meantime, dozens of inmates swam to freedom from a flooded Indonesian jail after one of its walls collapsed, police said Wednesday, the latest breakout to hit the country`s creaking prison system.

At least 32 inmates escaped from the jail in Jambi city on western Sumatra island late Tuesday by swimming through the floodwaters after they smashed through the wall.

Most were recaptured but about 10 are believed to still be on the run after the breakout from the jail, which houses about 1,200 inmates, said Jambi police spokesman Kuswahyudi Tresnadi.

Hundreds of police officers and soldiers have been deployed to look for the escapees. Security forces are using rubber dinghies for the search operation in Jambi, which is still inundated with floodwaters.

“If the inmates are hiding with their families, we urge the families to surrender them and hand them over to us,” Tresnadi told AFP.

Jailbreaks are common in Indonesia where most prisons are overcrowded.

Last month, more than 440 inmates fled a jail in Pekanbaru City on the island of Sumatra after prison guards let them out of their cells to pray.

Only about half were recaptured.