Five members of one family are believed to have died in the Grenfell Tower fire.
Relatives of the El-Wahabi family from Morocco have been told by police that they are all presumed dead, and are now waiting for official confirmation.
As the names of the victims begin to emerge, many of them appear to have been Muslims.
Abdul Aziz El-Wahabi was 52 and his wife Fouzia was 42. Their three children, 21-year-old Yasin, 16-year-old Nurhada and eight-year-old Mehdi are also thought to have died in the fire.
Otman Boujettif, 42, a cousin, told the London Evening Standard: “An entire family’s been wiped out. We spoke to them at about 1.30am but they’d been told by the fire brigade to stay in their flat, put towels down, wet the floors and wait. But they followed the wrong advice and now they are gone. It’s devastating.”
The family all lived on the 21st floor of the tower, according to Mr Wahabi’s sister. Hanan Wahabi told reporters: “I rang him and the fire had not reached the top of the block at that point. He said he had been told to stay inside, stay in one room together and put towels under the door.
“I told him to leave. He said he was going to come. Then I called him and he said there was too much smoke. The last time I saw him they were waving out the window. The last time I spoke to his wife, he was on the phone to the fire brigade.”
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Housewife Amina Ahmed, 28, who lives on the 19th floor of next door tower block Winstable, knew the Moroccan family of five.
She said: ‘They were on the 21st floor of Grenfell and were told not to leave their flat when the fire started. Had they left at the time they would have got out alive.
“I’m so heartbroken as I could see it and could hear families screaming. I felt so helpless. Our building is very similar so we are just terrified of it happening to us one day.”
