Tears and fears for ‘refugee’ homeless

TEARFUL residents wandered the streets amid chaos and confusion as tower blocks were evacuated in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy.

There was panic as families heard reports that they will be unable to return for three weeks.

Camden Council cleared 650 flats from four towers at the Chalcots Estate in Swiss Cottage, North London, on Friday night. Officials, acting over fears cladding is a fire risk, are finding alternative accommodation for 4,000 locals.

But one resident, sleeping on an air bed at Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre, said: “Apparently we’ve been living in a death trap for six years – fair play, they got us out. But this is a different kind of a nightmare. All of us squashed in together, none of us know what is happening or how long we will be here.”

Scaffolder Frank Blunkett described the centre as “like a refugee camp” while Rose Turner, 27, who has a nine-weekold son, complained: “We are being treated like animals.”

Mahin Rahman, 29, slept in a car with three other family members.

EVACUATED Mum and child in Camden