'I will always be haunted by it': Grenfell Tower survivor relives escape from 22nd floor

Two women have spoken of how they escaped from the 22nd floor of Grenfell Tower more than two hours after the blaze began.

Naomi Li, 32, and her cousin, Lydia Liao, 23, survived the fire, which killed at least 80, by placing wet towels over their faces and groping their way down the stairwell.

Ms Li called her husband Lee Chapman who was away on business and said: “I don’t know if we will make it. I love you.”

Chapman was forced to the watch the events unfold on television and social media.

“I count myself lucky every day,” Ms Li said in a Facebook post. “I will always be haunted by the images I saw that night.

“We couldn’t see anything through the dense smoke, just very blurred lights. I tried to call Lydia on every floor to make sure she was behind me.

“Lydia fell over a body and screamed. I told her to get up and that we needed to focus on getting down.”

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“I kept telling her and myself that they weren’t bodies and were someone’s clothes. That was probably the saddest experience in our lives.

“I was just determined we would get out. Every breath felt like someone was trying to choke me.

“We moved fast, but the stairwell never seemed to end.”

Ms Li added: “When we got to the second or third floor we hit fresh air. That’s when I knew we were safe.

“We sat by a tree and were given oxygen by paramedics. It was the first time we saw the outside of the building and the extent of the fire. We saw where we would have been on the 22nd floor and it was engulfed in flames.

“I think we were some of the last people to come out by foot that night. Most people after us were being taken out on stretchers. Thirty seconds or a minute later and I don’t think we would have made it.”

A public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower disaster has been launched, which Prime Minister says will leave “no stone unturned”.

Theresa May promised that lessons will be learned from the blaze on the day that she confirmed retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick will lead the process.

The scope of the disaster will be subject to considerable scrutiny as those touched by the tragedy fight to make their voices heard.