Miracle escape after 12 hours: Blind pensioner rescued from London fire after using jumper as SOS flag

The man was seen crying for help from his window high up in his tower block for hours before he was rescued. Photo / AP

A man believed to be elderly and partially blind has been rescued from the Grenfell Tower inferno after a terrifying 12-hour wait.

The man, who has been identified by relatives, is believed to have lived in the tower for 30 years and was seen praying at his window as he waited for help on the 11th floor.

The man peers out of a window. Photo / AP

Good Morning Britain filmed him as he waved a jumper as a makeshift SOS flag and cried out for help from his 11th-floor flat.

Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, the programme's presenters, said they felt "helpless" as they watched him and feared for his life.

Parts of the building still burn hours after the deadly blaze. Photo / AP

However, he has now been pictured being rescued by firefighters 12 hours after he was trapped by the blaze.

Reid said: "He in his 70s, he's partially blind. He has lived in the Grenfell Tower for 30 years.

"Now we have seen him over the course of the last hour or so in contact with firefighters."

He was rescued shortly after midday.

At least 12 people have been confirmed dead in the huge fire that ripped through the west London tower block, but police expect the death toll to rise.

Smoke and flames rise from the building. Photo / AP

Up to 600 people are believed to have been inside Grenfell Tower's 120 flats when the blaze tore through the 24-storey building in the early hours of yesterday morning (local time).

Twenty people are in critical care and 74 injured people were taken to hospital. But many are still missing after residents were trapped on upper floors as flames rapidly ripped up the block after householders were initially told to stay in their homes.