Image source, EPA

The BBC's Claire Heald reports from the area around Grenfell Tower.

Derry Glover lives in Olaf Street, down the road from the estate, and told the BBC's Claire Heald how he saw fire spread from about the fourth floor, to the eighth, then up to a corner.

He says it then spread across from the right hand side of the building.

He watched people flash their "torches" out to try to attract attention.

"We heard the windows popping, the building cracking."

But he says the really distressing thing was to see people on their phones here in the street talking to family and friends in the building until the lines went dead.

"One lady was screaming, hysterical," he says, shaking his head.

The Rugby Portobello Trust, a local youth, education and housing charity at 221 Walmer Road, W11, is coordinating supplies for those caught up in the fire. It posted on Facebook that many of the residents are there now with its team. Offers of help are pouring in from people ready to volunteer their time, or donate food and clothing.

Image source, Getty Images

BBC correspondent Andy Moore said "fears remain" that Grenfell Tower could still collapse.

He told BBC Breakfast there were still fears "for the structure of the building" where fires continue to flare up in the middle of the tower block, eight hours after the blaze was reported.

Speaking around 09:00 BST, he described "flaming debris" falling off the building and said the public had been moved back from the scene.

Catatonia singer Cerys Matthews lives in Ladbroke Grove, which is near the fire.

“The tower is still engulfed with smoke. I’m horrified, we’re all devastated – the whole of the local community, it’s a strong community round this area.

“We were woken at 1:30 this morning with relentless helicopters.

“This morning it’s a black and gutted skeleton and what’s worrying now is we’re hearing cracking noises.

“We know families living there… people are worried about people, they don’t know where they are.”

A woman at a nearby evacuation centre, who asked not to be named, told the Press Association about her experiences after the fire broke out.

"There was a woman stood behind me who was shouting to someone she knew on the seventh floor. She was on the phone trying to speak to him, she was obviously very emotional because the flats were blazing at this point.

"He looked like he was screaming to her.

"Police said for anyone at the windows to wave a rag or something so the firemen could rescue them, but we thought 'how are they gonna do that?'

"I saw the woman later and she was hysterical. She said her friend jumped. The whole of his window was on fire."

London Ambulance Service says more than 100 medics are treating the casualties of the fire and more than 50 people have been taken to hospital.

Image source, AFP

Some residents say they were advised in the past that in the event of a fire breaking out, they should stay in their flats with the front door shut and wait to be rescued.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, told the BBC that the advice would be looked into.

"That's one of the things that obviously, not unreasonably, people are raising, and it was raised by some of the residents in the tower block and thankfully residents didn't stay in their flats and fled to safety.

"Across London we've many, many tower blocks and what we can't have is a situation [where] people's safety is put at risk because of bad advice being given or if it is the case, as it's been alleged, of tower blocks not being properly serviced and maintained."

Image source, Getty Images

Eyewitness Muna Ali, 45, said the blaze had "completely spread within half an hour".

She added: "The flames - I have never seen anything like it, it just reminded me of 9/11."

Aircraft passenger John Morley could see the plumes of smoke while heading towards Heathrow. He said he first saw the smoke from as far away as the south coast of England.

Image source, John Morley

The BBC's Andy Moore has confirmed the fire is still burning in the upper floors of the tower block, but says the situation is "under control"

"Higher up the fire is just being left to burn. There is nothing they [firefighters] can do about it."

He said resources to tackle the fire had come from as far as Surrey.

Image source, EPA

This eyewitness has posted footage from earlier this morning.

The BBC's Claire Heald has spoken to Eliane Lara and Saimir Lleshi, who are outside the community response centre set up in nearby St Clement's Church.

Their flat in the lower-rise block near Grenfell faces the tower.

They were woken at about 01:30 BST by the sound of people screaming and yelling for help, calling out for someone to come and help their families.

"It was very distressing to hear," she says. "The fire spread so quickly."

The tower was burning on the other side from them but they could see the fire spreading through the building, first up one side, then across all floors and down through it.

It lit up the whole area, they say, and the screams echoed off all the buildings around.

They saw people making sheet ropes tied together to try to escape on the outside.

"Our children were terrified, we just tried to keep them calm," says Saimir.

Extensive work was recently completed at Grenfell Tower, at a cost of £10m, in July 2016, by the Rydon construction group. , external

Built in the 1970s, the exterior was given cladding and replacement windows as part of the recent works, according to the company's website.

It also says additional homes were added on the first four floors.

London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton has issued a statement on the ongoing Grenfell Tower fire, promising further information will be made public as soon as possible.

She says:

• The fire has affected all floors of the 24-storey building, from the second floor up
• The first calls were received at 00:54 BST and the first fire crews arrived in under six minutes

• Crews wearing breathing apparatus have been working in extremely difficult conditions to rescue people and bring this major fire under control
• There are confirmed fatalities
• The fire brigade will be on site all day and providing updates

Read the full statement here, external.

Image source, PA

While there have been a few tower block fires in London in recent years, the Grenfell Tower fire is the most serious since the Lakanal House tragedy in Camberwell in 2009, which claimed the lives of six people.

In February this year Southwark Council pleaded guilty to four charges relating to safety breaches regarding the Lakanal blaze.

Three women and three young children died when a fire started due to an electrical fault with a television.

In August last year fire broke out in Shepherd's Bush when a faulty tumble dryer subject to a safety notice caught fire. Flames engulfed the 18-storey high rise block. No one was injured.

Two hundred people were evacuated when fire broke out on the 27th floor of Trellick Tower in Kensal Green due to a discarded cigarette.