Dad’s, 75, chilling final words to horrified sons as he called them pleading for help while trapped on floor 23 of Grenfell Tower
A PENSIONER is feared to have died in the Grenfell Tower inferno moments after speaking to his two sons on the phone and saying: "I can't breathe."
Abdel Salam, understood to be 75, was trapped in his flat on the 23rd floor when the fire began, engulfing his home in smoke.
This heartbreaking case has emerged along with reports a mum threw her baby from a ninth floor window into the arms of a hero bystander, while others screamed "save my children" as the fire ravaged their tower block home.
Twelve people have died with the death toll expected to rise and 68 others - 18 critical - are being treated in hospital after the blaze at Grenfell House in west London this morning.
Mr Salam's two sons were coming back from the Al Manar mosque when they noticed the blaze.
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But when they called Abdel, a Moroccan pensioner also known as Sabar, he was struggling to breathe because of the smoke.
Mohammed Lariche, 44, a friend of Abdel's, said: "His sons had been to the mosque and they had seen the fire at about 1.30am.
"They called Abdel and he said to them, 'I can't breathe, I can't move'.
"He was in the flat on the 23rd floor on his own, he was overcome.
"Abdel was a nice guy, quite a short old man with a long beard.
"He used to visit the mosque and was well known in the community."
Another friend Idris Wagdi, 50, said Abdel was a "leader of the community".
He said: "Abdel had lived in this area for more than 40 years after moving from Morocco.
"He will be sorely missed, everyone appreciated him and he did so much for the Muslims in this community.
"It's very sad. His sons were the last to hear from him."
What we know so far:
- The Metropolitan Police have confirmed 12 people are dead but the death toll is expected to rise after a huge fire engulfed Grenfell Tower in West London just before 1am on Wednesday night
- The 24-storey high tower block has 120 apartments
- Around 74 people have been taken to six hospitals in the capital, with 18 in a critical condition, while dozens of others are missing and feared dead
- The Prime Minister launched an urgent investigation into the disaster
- Authorities say the cause of the fire is still not known — with some suggesting it was sparked by a fridge fire
- Experts warned the blaze was spread by cladding panels which are fitted to countless buildings across Britain
- Residents were seen jumping from upper floors in scenes reminiscent of September 11
- Horrified witnesses told of babies being thrown from windows by desperate mothers
- It was revealed the block had only recently undergone a £10million refurb but still had no sprinkler system installed
- Designers insisted the refurbishment work complied with building regulations
- Residents raised safety concerns four years ago, but were ignored
- A former housing minister was blasted for postponing a government review into tower block safety
- Celebrities and ordinary Londoners have united to provide food, clothes, money and shelter for survivors
Stunned eyewitnesses have described scenes of carnage as frantic residents trapped inside the block attempted to flee.
Horrified Samira Lamrani told how a baby dropped by a desperate mum "from the ninth or tenth floor" was caught by a hero bystander below.
She told the Press Association: "People were starting to appear at the windows, frantically banging and screaming.
"The windows were slightly ajar, a woman was gesturing that she was about to throw her baby and if somebody could catch her baby.
"Somebody did, a gentleman ran forward and managed to grab the baby."
Speaking to the Huffington Post, she added: "She wrapped her baby in what seemed like a sheet or blanket and threw the young baby out of the window.
“A member of the public, a guy ran forward and just miraculously grabbed the baby at the right moment and then the shadow, I assume the mother, went backwards and that was the last we saw."
She also claimed a resident made a "homemade parachute" to lower himself out of the window as the fire raged.
One witness said he saw a "child on fire" jump from the 22nd floor of the tower block.
He said: "The fire started happening on third floor, we called the fire bridge who came 20 minutes later, and then the whole thing just went up.
"An hour-and-a-half later I saw a kid on the 22nd floor on fire, he walked to the window, and he jumped."
At least 12 people have been killed and 20 more are fighting for their lives - but it is feared scores of residents may have perished.
One fearful local told how a 12-year-old girl trapped in the raging inferno called her best friend to say: "We are not going to make it, I love you".
The teenager, her two younger sisters, mum, dad and grandmother are all missing and feared dead.
Local resident, Hulya, 42, said: "My neighbour told me that one of the daughters rang her own daughter at about 12.30 saying they weren't going to make it and that she loved her.
She's about 13 I think. Nobody has been able to contact any of them since. It's just awful."
Eddie Daffarn was on the 16th floor of the block when he received a call from a neighbour telling him to "get out".
The 55-year-old, who was pictured in the aftermath wearing a blanket, said: "I ran out to find where the exit was and eventually a fireman was lying on the ground and touched my leg and he was able to help me into the fire escape.
"If I had been in that stairwell for any longer I don’t think I would have found the escape exit.
"You couldn’t see a thing. I was choking badly, it was a moment of life and death for me. I didn’t have that much time to think, it was only when I got into the doorway I realised how serious it was.
“I’m very grateful that the London Fire Brigade were there to help me. I couldn’t see anything. I was choking. I think my neighbour who called me saved my life.”
One bystander, known as only Tamara, said she could hear people screaming for help as the blaze ripped through the tower block.
She told BBC News: "We could hear people screaming 'help me' so me and my brother, with some other people who live in the area, ran over to the estate to where you could still get underneath it and there were people just throwing their kids out saying 'save my children'.
"The fire crew, ambulance and police couldn't do anything, they couldn't get in, and they were just telling them to stay where they are, and we'll come and get you. But things quickly escalated beyond measure and they couldn't go back in and get them.
"Within another 15 minutes the whole thing was up in flames and there were still people at their windows shouting 'Help me'. You could see the fire going into their houses and engulfing the last room that they were in."
Desperate residents jumped from windows in scenes "reminiscent of 9/11" as they tried to escape the flames.
Shaken dad Michael Paramasivan, 37, ran down six flights of stairs clinging to his five-year-daughter as the fire ravaged the tower block.
He said: "'It was crazy, it was just spreading so fast it was like it had been covered in petrol it was going so quickly.
''By the time we got out of the flat it was completely up, in a matter of minutes.
"Everyone was running for their lives."
Mahad Egal escaped from the fourth floor with his family including two children just before 1am.
He sobbed as he revealed how the fire was originally the size of an "average tree" before it spread to cladding and engulfed the tower block in a blazing inferno.
Mahad told the Victoria Derbyshire show: "There stairwells were full of smoke, dark, scary, and a trip hazard and fall hazard as some lights weren't working. It is incredible we survived.
"There were people jumping out of the place, a man who threw two of his children out."
Terrified residents were seen waving their bedsheets from the windows as crowds watched on below in horror.
Some lashed the sheets together to make a rope in an attempt to reach the ground.
A witness identified as Daniel told BBC Radio London that people on the upper floors were trapped as the flames rose higher and higher.
"People have been burned," he said. "I have seen it with my own eyes. And I have seen people jump."
While Jody Martin said he battled his way his way to the second floor only to encounter choking smoke.
He added: "I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out the window... hearing screams, I was yelling everyone to get down and they were saying 'We can't leave our apartments, the smoke is too bad on the corridors'.
Shocking photos show the gutted tower block after flames erupted from windows during the horror.
Suimi LLeshi, 40, is one of hundreds of people who have been evacuated from their homes.
He told Sun Online: "I heard screaming but it was a long time before I got up because I thought there must be some drunks.
"By the time I got out people were screaming 'I have got kids you have got to help' it was very very bad.
"I could see people right at the top at the window.
"No one could anything."
Those trapped in the building could be heard begging for their lives as they waved towels and torches to attract the attention of 200 firefighters who worked through the night.
Local resident Amanda Fernandez, 32, who grew up and went to school in the neighbourhood, described the scene as "like Armageddon".
She said: "It was literally like what you see in a film.
"You could hear screaming. It was like a nightmare.
"The lights starting blacking out.
"Then you could see the people inside using their lights on their mobile phones, then you think 'oh my God, they have not got out'."