London police arrest six men in effigy video
LONDON — London police said Tuesday that they have arrested six men over a video that showed a cardboard model of Grenfell Tower being burned on a bonfire — an act condemned by bereaved families and survivors of the apartmentblock blaze that killed 72 people.
The Metropolitan Police force said five men turned themselves in at a police station late Monday and were arrested on suspicion of a public order offense after allegedly creating a copy of the fire-ravaged west London public housing tower. A sixth man handed himself in to police Tuesday.
The men, who range in age from 19 to 55, were being held in custody Tuesday but had not been charged.
Survivors of the blaze expressed disgust at the video, which showed a large flammable model marked “Grenfell Tower,” complete with paper figures at the windows, being set on fire.
Khadijah Mamudu, whose mother and younger brother escaped the June 14, 2017, firestorm, called the burning of the model a “vile act.”
Prime Minister Theresa May called the video “utterly unacceptable,” and judge Martin MooreBick, who is leading an inquiry into the blaze, said it was “shocking and distressing to all those involved.”
Although it was not clear when the video was taken, it emerged on social media at a time of year when Britons celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. Many across the country light fireworks and bonfires to mark Fawkes’s failure to blow up Parliament in 1605.