Archive: London's Metropolitan Police have released the first footage from inside Grenfell Tower. Source: Metropolitan Police
In the days after the Grenfell Tower tragedy, a harrowing video circulated in which a distraught volunteer demanded to know the real death count.
"Have you seen the building?" west Londoner Nadia angrily demanded through tears in a Press TV clip. "There's more than 17 people dead!
"Where are themissing people? Where's the list of the 500 people that live in that building, 600 people? Where is everyone? Where are the victims? Why are we doing this? We're packing boxes, we're sending food, to who? They've died.
"The people that deserve it are the people that died in that building because they wanted to make it look pretty, and it's an inferno.
"I've been here for two days, I live here, I haven't met one victim. I've met volunteers and I've met people that want to help but I haven't met anybody, no victims, none of the people I grew up with. I can't find anyone.
"Sell the boxes and pay for the funerals because there's going to be 500 funerals you need to pay for. I'm not volunteering any more, I'm not volunteering until I see some victims that I'm helping.
"Everyone's died and no one wants to say it. I had to hear a little kid say, my friends have died, where are my friends? Everyone has died and no one is telling them."
The death toll rises
In six days, the Grenfell fire has morphed from tragedy to utter shambles, with fury at the local council, UK government and the authorities, who have admitted they don't know exactly who was in the building and may not be able to identify all of the dead.
Nadia is just one of many furious locals who believe the authorities or the media have deliberately downplayed the true number of deaths.
Singer Lily Allen, who lives in the area, told Channel 4 news the day after the devastating fire: "Seventeen? I'm sorry but I am hearing the figure is much closer to 150 and that many of those people are children."
And indeed, the death toll has been steadily rising from that initial figure - to 30, then 58, and then on Monday to 79, with police confirming that five people had been formally identified, and 74 were missing, presumed dead. Metropolitan Police Commander Stuart Cundy warned the number may still increase.
Haunting images of an incinerated apartment as emergency services continue searching the building for bodies. Police have said some victims may never be identified. Photo/Getty Images
The same afternoon, a London resident sensationally claimed that 42 bodies had been found in just one incinerated room in the building. But authorities discredited the claim, with a London Fire Brigade spokesperson telling news.com.au "that doesn't sound right to me" and Met Police commenting, "It's nothing we've been made aware of."
Police have said from the beginning that the final death toll was likely to be significantly higher than that first reported, and emergency services have faced a battle to find and identify the dead in the charred building.
Locals continue to search for missing loved ones on social media and through posters taped to bus stops and lampposts - but most fear the worst.
With a high immigrant population in the tower, some may not even have been reported missing. Mr Cundy said last week that because of the ferocity of the blaze, there was "a risk that sadly we may not be able to identify everybody". Five people reported missing after the disaster had been found safe and well, he said.
Police released horrific images of the scorched interior this week, with entire walls burnt away to nothing and charred remains of people's furniture and possessions littering the ground.
Meanwhile, there is growing anger at tourists snapping "disaster selfies" in front of the charred apartment block where so many died. Mourners and nearby residents erected signs outside begging passers-by to "stop taking selfies" and "stop taking pictures please".
Firefighters have struggled to access the top floors of the charred building. Photo/AP
'Second-class citizens because they are poor'
Two British officials said on Sunday that cladding used in a 2015 refurbishment of Grenfell Tower may have been banned under UK building regulations.
Theresa May has been criticised for social housing policies that some claim resulted in the cutting of corners, with cheaper cladding used in the refurbishment and a lack of fire escape routes or sprinklers in the building.
The UK Prime Minister also came under fire for staying away from terrified and angry residents after the tragedy.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which is responsible for Grenfell Tower, has also come under attack after it emerged it had an eye-watering $450 million in reserves from regular underspending - in 2016-17 it is expected to underspend by $17 million.
Violent protests at Downing Street after Prime Minister Theresa May was accused of not making an effort to meet with grieving families. Photo/Getty Images
That's been compared to a demographically similar borough, Islington, where the council underspent by just $340,000 in 2015-16.
In 2013-14, Kensington & Chelsea council used its $50 million underspend to offer a $170 rebate to top rate council taxpayers.
The wealthy local council has been accused of "unacceptable" financial practices for stockpiling cash rather than spending it on social housing.
Instead, it handed over all such building to the private Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, which allegedly ignored residents' repeated warnings about fire risks, power surges and broken emergency lighting.
Experts have zeroed in on the exterior cladding the KCTMO had fitted to Grenfell Tower in 2015 as a possible reason the fire spread so rapidly. Just another $8000 would reportedly have paid for fire resistant alternative.
Grenfell Action Group warned in a chillingly prescient blog post in November that "only a catastrophic event" would achieve anything.
Shadow Communities Secretary Andrew Gwynne told The Independent: "If some of this money was spent on sprinkler systems and nonflammable cladding we wouldn't be where we are today.
"Residents are saying that they feel as though they have been treated as second-class citizens because they are poor. It cannot be right that the council ran a budget surplus whilst families in their borough were living in such unsafe housing. That is simply unacceptable."
Mr Cundy has promised an "exhaustive" criminal investigation into the fire and the refurbishment.
