Survivors who fled down the smoke and fire-filled central staircase – the only staircase in the tower block – told of the “hell on earth” of stepping over bodies to make their way to safety.

The fire had broken out at just before 1am at the 24-storey tower block in an impoverished neighbourhood in Britain’s wealthiest borough. More than 600 people were living in 120 flats in the block. Their escape route was a single staircase at the building’s centre.

The cause of the fire will be subject to a lengthy investigation but one survivor said it had begun on the fourth floor, the result of a fridge that exploded.

Aalya Moses’s doorbell rang at about 12.50am. It was her neighbour in flat 16, banging on the door. “He was shouting that his flat was on fire,” she said. She raced out the building.