Stratford fire: Scores of ‘screaming’ people flee as blaze breaks out in east London tower block

About 100 people were forced to flee after a fire broke out on the 17th floor of a tower block in east London.

Some 58 firefighters battled the blaze for an hour and a half in Stratford in the early hours of Monday.

One witness described how terrified people ran “screaming” from the scene of the inferno as "thick" smoke billowed from the building.

Rahul Pawar, who lives across the road from the Leather Gardens block, told the Standard: "Around 1.15am I heard people screaming and a few minutes later thick cloud of smoke emerged from the building.