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The leader of Kensington and Chelsea council has said a "thorough investigation is needed" into the cause of the fire.

Councillor Nicholas Paget-Brown told Mishal Husain that any advice residents were given is "a matter for the London Fire Service".

When questioned about whether it was a matter for the council he said they will "always ensure" that the council's own properties are "inspected by the fire service and high standards are set".

BBC Breakfast

Eyewitness Tamara told BBC News: "You could hear people screaming 'help me, help me'".

"There were people throwing their kids out [of windows], they were shouting 'save my children'"

"The fire brigade were telling people to stay where they were, they were telling people 'we'll come and get you'."

Image source, Getty Images

It escalated really quickly," said friend, and fellow eyewitness, Samira, who recalled how initially the fire only appeared to be on one of the lower floors.

"Around midnight the fire was only around the third floor and then, before you knew it, all the floors of the building were all on fire.

"Everyone was really scared. and they didn't know what to do and it was really sad to see.

"These are all people that we grew up with and people that we see every day, like our neighbours.

"It was shocking."

London Ambulance Service says more than 50 patients have been taken to five hospitals, following the fire.

Zoe lives on the fourth floor where the fire is reported to have started:

"I was asleep and then someone started banging on my door, so I opened my door and my neighbour said there's a fire, get out.

"So I shut the door, went and put on my trainers and when I went back to the door, opened it, the whole landing was thick with smoke.

"The smoke alarms weren't going off but the way it spread so quickly from the fourth floor, all the way up to the 23rd floor was scary."

TfL tweets that buses serving west London are delayed by up to 40 minutes due to the fire. Bus passes are being accepted on the tube in Zones 1 and 2.

This unnamed witness has told the BBC about what the scene was like when the fire was burning.

"It was just devastating. You saw people jumping out, everyone screaming for help, everyone running.

"Loads of ambulances, police, everyone screaming, and then apparently the fire brigade and everyone got called and then they couldn't find the block at first, and then it just escalated. And then we got escorted out, we can't go back into our homes."

Those living in sight of the Grenfell Tower awoke to find smoke pouring from the blackened building.

Local Chloe Busby posted footage saying: "It's 8 o'clock now. This is the view from my kitchen window. I can still see flames."

A resident of Grenfell Tower explains how he and his family got out of the burning building.

A reminder that the Metropolitan Police has set up a casualty bureau number - 0800 0961 233.

BBC Breakfast

Nick Paget-Brown, of Kensington and Chelsea council, said there would need to be "a thorough investigation into the cause of the fire and why it spread so rapidly".

Mr Paget-Brown said there were always "concerns" about fire safety in tower blocks, but insisted council buildings in the area "were regularly inspected".

The leader of Kensington and Chelsea borough said "several hundred" people would have been in Grenfell Tower when the fire broke out on Wednesday.

He told BBC News there were 130 flats in the tower, but "we don't yet know who was inside" at the time of the fire. He said the issue would be complicated by the fact the fire broke out in the middle of the night, when most people would have been sleeping.

"When we have more information we will share it and I am sure the fire brigade will as well."

He went on to praise the London Fire Brigade, saying they were doing "a wonderful job".

London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton has told reporters that the cause of the fire was not yet known, and the extent of it was "unprecedented".

She also said she had never seen anything on this scale.

Londoners are using social media to offer free food and emergency accommodation to those affected by the fire.

Image source, EPA

Paul Littlejohn lives opposite Grenfell Tower. He told the BBC:

"I woke up about half past one this morning to look across the road and see the big Grenfell Tower, in a towering inferno, blaze, just fire coming out of every window, windows smashing and exploding.

"Things falling out, people screaming, people jumping out on fire, chucking ropes down what they'd made out of bedsheets, to try and climb out. Just complete nightmare, absolute nightmare."

Eyewitness Zeinab Jafari,who lives in nearby Treadgold Street, first heard sirens around 01:30 BST on Wednesday.

Some members of Zeinab's family live inside Grenfell Tower, on the 11th floor.

"My mother-in-law and her eldest daughter realised there was a fire and got out," she told BBC News.

"They shouted at my father-in-law. But he takes lots of medication."

Zeinab says she has not heard from her father-in-law since; he is 86. She has been contacting the hospitals, but says no one is answering the number she was told to call.

London Fire Brigade says there have been fatalities but cannot give a number.

The BBC's Claire Heald has spoken to a woman called Zeinab at the scene.

She says: "There wasn't any other fire exit, except the staircase where the fire was coming.

"My youngest sister-in-law and my father-in-law were stuck. I was taken out but then lost contact with my father.

"The building has been redone on the outside, a cover - some kind of plastic has been put on it and the windows done.

"The fire went under a new cover which had been put on with wooden slats. Most of the residents were worried about this.

"We had meetings about the works and were worried it would happen."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

A resident of Grenfall Tower says he was woken by the smell of plastic and on evacuating the building could see "people in windows banging and screaming... flashing lights".

Michael Paramaseevan told the BBC's Nick Robinson "I had been told if there ever was an outbreak of a fire you must stay in your premises"

BBC London Travel
BBC Radio London Travel

These roads are currently shut due to the ongoing fire at Grenfell Tower in North Kensington.

- A40 between West Cross Route (Northern Roundabout) and Marylebone Flyover, likely to remain shut through rush hour

- Grenfell Rd between Bomore Roa and Treadgold Street - Silchester Rd between Bramley Road and Lancaster Road

- Bramley Rd between Silchester Road and Whitchurch Road - Lancaster Road between St Mark's Road and Silchester Road

One the Tube, the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines have no service between Hammersmith and Edgware Road. Severe delays on the rest of the lines.

David Benjamin told BBC Radio London: “There was smoke everywhere, literally everywhere.

There were bits of the cladding falling off the block, people screaming, kids at the window, flashing their phone light to get help.”

Image source, Getty Images