Families told identifying all victims could take six months

FAMILIES of Grenfell Tower victims have been told it could take until the end of the year to identify their relatives.

At a meeting with the Westminster coroner and the Metropolitan Police service last night, relatives responded angrily to news that the “recovery phase” could take six months.

Lotifa Begum, a coordinator for the charity Muslim Aid said some of those at the meeting were “very upset and angry”, and a few had been overwhelmed and had to leave.

An email invitation had told families it would be an opportunity to “have some questions answered”, but they were told before the meeting that they would not be allowed to put questions directly to Dr Fiona Wilcox, the coroner, or Met Police Commander Stuart Cundy, and had to email their questions in by 11am the day before.

Chris Imafidon said after leaving the meeting that he felt “insulted” that victims’ families were not allowed to ask questions directly. Mohamed Amied Neda, a close friend, had lived on the 23rd floor of the tower.

 It emerged yesterday that buildings at three NHS trusts in England failed fire safety tests following the disaster. All NHS trusts and foundation trusts have been asked to carry out urgent fire safety checks. So far, cladding used on 197 residential tower blocks in 52 local authority areas has failed government safety tests.

Fire chiefs warned that up to 38 hospital sites might be as dangerous as Grenfell, with nine at the greatest risk.