More than 200 firefighters have battled to extinguish a huge blaze at a block of flats in London which echoed the deadly Grenfell Tower fire of 2017.
Two people have been taken to hospital and more than 100 evacuated from their homes after the blaze engulfed the high rise block in Freshwater Road, Dagenham.
Forty fire engines attended the scene and the London Fire Brigade declared a major incident.
Residents spoke of rushing to safety from the building in the early hours of Monday morning, some having been awoken by neighbors banging on their front door.
Fire services working to control the blaze. /London Fire Brigade/AFP
Authorities had begun work on removing cladding from the mixed-use tower block that included homes and businesses shortly before the blaze.
Architectural cladding solutions firm Valcan recently posted on social media that it was working to remove "non-compliant cladding" on the building.
Recent years have seen local authorities across the UK strive to remove potentially inflammable cladding from high-rise blocks in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in June 2017 which killed 72 people.
Grenfell was one of the UK's worst modern disasters. The tower had a 'stay put' fire policy which advised occupants to remain inside the building until fire crews extinguished a blaze.
A second inquiry into the tragedy will be published on September 4. The first inquiry found that the flames spread rapidly due to the presence of ACM (aluminum composite panels) with polyethylene cores.
The Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service say that no criminal charges will be announced until at least the end of 2026 due to the inquiry's "complexity", involving 19 organizations and companies and 58 individuals involved in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower before the fire.
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