Tower block blaze victims named in south east london

Police have named five of the six victims killed in a fire at a tower block in south-east London.

Helen Udoaka, 34, and her three-week-old daughter Michelle died following the fire which broke out at the 12-storey Lakanal Estate in Camberwell.

The other three named are Dayana Francisquini, 26, Filipe Francisquini, 3, and Catherine Hickman, 31. The sixth person remains unidentified.

Police are treating Friday's fire as suspicious until a cause is determined.

The Metropolitan Police says the sixth victim is believed to be a four-year-old girl but she has not been formally identified.

About 30 people had to be rescued from the building as the fire spread. Another 120 were evacuated.

London Fire Bridge (LFB) assistant commissioner Nick Collins said investigators were "reasonably confident" the fire, which was tackled by more than 100 firefighters, started on the ninth floor.

Three of the bodies remained inside the building, he said.

Chief Supt Wayne Chance: "Priority is to make the scene safe"

All those who died were on the 11th floor, police said.

Ch Supt Wayne Chance, from the Metropolitan Police, said: "We would always treat a situation like this as suspicious because we don't know the cause... in the first instance."

The Metropolitan Police said it was still too early to say how the fire started and that officers were working with the LFB's investigation team to establish the cause.

London mayor Boris JohnsonBoris Johnson described the fire as an "horrendous incident".

He said what people would want to know was if there was "any intent" behind the cause of the blaze.

There would also be an investigation into whether there were any "design failures" in the building, he said.