Death toll rises to 146 as thousands pay their respects

At least 146 people are now known to have died in the devastating fire that tore through high-rise buildings in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

Police announced the new death toll on Sunday, cautioning that they “cannot rule out the possibility of further fatalities”. There still 150 people missing, and the blaze left 79 injured.

Seven of eight tower blocks at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in the northerly Tai Po district rapidly went up in flames. Accusations that the fire was spread by flammable construction materials have sparked widespread anger.

Three days of national mourning started on Saturday, and thousands have gathered at the scene to mourn the victims.

There have been queues stretching a long as 2km (1.2 miles), as people wait to lay flowers and handwritten notes.

Indonesian worker Romlah Rosidah said she was “very surprised” at how many people had turned up to pray for the victims.

“This event was only spread on social media, but [it] turned out their hearts moved,” she told news agency Reuters.

A Filipino worker said they had joined the prayers to “show the Hong Kong community that we are one in this situation”.

Officials observed three minutes’ silence to begin the mourning period, and the flags of China and Hong Kong are flying at half-staff.

The fire is Hong Kong’s deadliest in more than 70 years, and the death toll has been rising each day, as officials work to recover and identify bodies.

The exact cause of the blaze has yet to be determined. Eight people have been arrested on suspicion of corruption over the renovations that had been taking place on the towers, while three others were detained on manslaughter charges.

The fire – which spread quickly both upwards and between the blocks – was only fully doused by Friday morning, some 40 hours after it started, and took more than 2,000 firefighters to bring under control.

The same day, police began entering the buildings to gather evidence. Authorities say the investigation could take three to four weeks.

Police official Tsang Shuk-yin said on Sunday that officers had so far completed searches of four of the tower blocks.

Indonesia’s consulate in Hong Kong said at least seven of its nationals had died from the fire, while the Philippines’ consulate said one of its citizens had died.

Firefighter Ho Wai-ho, 37, has been identified as among those killed. He was found collapsed at the scene on Wednesday, about 30 minutes after contact with him was lost.

The fire department said the blaze had reached a peak temperature of 500C (932F), and 12 firefighters were injured.

The flames spread quickly across the separate tower blocks on plastic netting and other flammable materials on the outside of the buildings, officials have said.

The buildings were also covered in bamboo scaffolding, which is commonly used for construction work in Hong Kong. The fire has renewed a debate about whether it should still be used.

Several residents have said they did not hear a fire alarm when the blaze broke out. Hong Kong’s fire service found that alarms in all eight blocks were not working effectively.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said that those arrested in the corruption investigation included directors at an engineering company and scaffolding subcontractors.

A police spokesperson previously said they had reason to believe “those in charge at the company were grossly negligent”, which led to the fire and caused it to “spread uncontrollably”.

Hong Kong’s buildings department has temporarily suspended works on 30 private projects.

Separately, police reportedly detained a 24-year-old man on suspicion of sedition on Saturday. He was part of a group petitioning for an independent inquiry into the fire.

Wang Fuk Court was built in 1983 and had provided 1,984 apartments for some 4,600 residents, according to a 2021 government census.

Nearly 40% of its residents are estimated to be at least 65 years old. Some have lived in the subsidised housing estate since it was built.

Hong Kong’s second-deadliest fire on record killed 176 people in 1948 and was caused by a ground-floor explosion at a five-storey warehouse. The most deadly was at Happy Valley Racecourse in 1918, when more than 600 people died.