70 firefighters bring blaze at high-rise block of flats in London under control

Ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters have brought a fire at a high-rise block of flats in southeast London under control, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) has said.

Two flats, on the ninth and 10th floors of a tower block on Rosenthal Road in Catford, were alight but the blaze was under control as of around 2.15pm, and there were no reports of any injuries, LFB said.

Footage of the fire shows flames bursting through a burnt-out flat on one of the building's top floors and a thick plume of black and grey smoke.

Images showed the top corner of the building covered in black soot, as a firefighter on a cherrypicker hoist looked on.

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The brigade said in a statement: "Rushey Green remains closed between Rosenthal Road and Honley Road and people are advised to avoid the area whilst firefighters continue to work at the scene.

"The Brigade was called at 12.51pm and the fire was under control by 14.14pm. Fire crews from Forest Hill, Greenwich, Deptford, Lee Green and surrounding fire stations attended the scene.

"The cause of the fire is under investigation."

The brigade said it had received almost 50 calls on Wednesday lunchtime.

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said they had sent "a number of resources to the scene including ambulance crews, incident response officers and members of our Hazardous Area Response Team".

"There are no patients so far but we remain on standby at the scene," they added.

It comes on the day of the final report of the Grenfell Tower inquiry into the 2017 fire in which 72 people lost their lives.