London mayor Sadiq Khan called the Grenfell Tower disaster a "preventable accident" that was due in part to political neglect. Police said the death toll was expected to rise further.

The first images of the interior of the burned-out building were released on Sunday.

 

Commander Stuart Cundy said some of the victims may never be identified. 

 

"The conditions due to the fire damage verge on indescribable, which is why this will be such a lengthy operation taking weeks to complete," Cundy said on Sunday. "We must also prepare people for the terrible reality that some people may not be identified due to the intensity of the fire," he said.

 

"Sadly that work leads me to believe that the number of people missing, but as yet unaccounted for has risen from yesterday's figure of 58," Cundy concluded. Nine people are in critical condition in hospital.

 

Government response

 

Prime Minister Theresa May and her ministers were scrambling to make up ground following stinging criticism of the government's initial response to the disaster. In an interview on Saturday, May admitted that the government's response to the disaster was "not good enough" as she announced a fast-tracked public inquiry into the fire, and promised to provide increased aid to help survivors cope and find alternative housing.

 

Experts believe the building's cladding, which contained insulation, helped the flames spread quickly up the outside of the housing complex. Some fire officials said they had never seen a building fire move so quickly.

 

Reports suggest that a renovation project on Grenfell Tower last year intentionally did not include safety devices such as sprinklers and doors designed to keep the fire from spreading.

 

The company behind the renovation also reportedly used banned, flammable cladding on the building's exterior to cut costs and make it more aesthetically attractive for neighbors in the Kensington and Chelsea borough, one of the UK's richest areas.

 

Stinging criticism from the opposition

 

The UK's opposition Labour party launched a stinging attack of the Conservative government in the wake of the fire, underscoring the role austere economic policies may have had in the disaster.

 

On Sunday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, recently emboldened by a better-than-expected result in this month's snap election, called on the government to drop its cuts in funding to local authorities.

 

"In the wake of (the) Grenfell fire, we have to recognize that something has gone badly, badly wrong in this country, that predominantly poor people die in a towering inferno because possibly in the long term (there had been a) lack of public investment," Corbyn told broadcaster ITV.

 

May added that she will receive daily briefings from the stricken area, although it remains to be seen how much of the information will be made public. Among the criticisms launched at May was also her government's failure to provide up-to-the-minute information to survivors.

 

As part of the inquiry, prominent Labour politician David Lammy said the government and police must seize all documents and records related to the building's renovation to avoid the destruction of incriminating evidence.

 

"The prime minister needs to act immediately to ensure that all evidence is protected so that everyone culpable for what happened at Grenfell Tower is held to account and feels the full force of the law," Lammy said. "When the truth comes out about this tragedy, we may find that there is blood on the hands of a number of organizations."

 

 

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