Detectives added that they were combing through scores of reports of missing people who lived in Grenfell Tower block in west London as they attempted to end the agony of those who were waiting for news of friends and relatives.
Among the missing are entire families, a six-month-old baby, a young Italian couple, and a five-year-old boy who lost hold of an adult’s hand as his family struggled through thick smoke to escape the blaze.
Commander Stuart Cundy, of the Metropolitan police, said the absolute priority was retrieving bodies and identifying the dead, as part of an ongoing investigation carried out with the fire service. The death toll of 17 would rise, he said, and some victims may never be formally identified. A further 30 people remain in hospital, 15 of whom are critically ill.
The senior officer said that 5,000 missing person calls had been made to the police casualty bureau, many involving multiple reports concerning one individual; one person was reported missing 46 times. As a result, it was hard to be sure precisely how many remained to be accounted for.
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