'I just need to know' Relatives wait for news of the missing amid growing anger over negligence

For almost 48 hours, Mr Lau had been calling his cousin. On Wednesday afternoon Lau was at his home nearby, when he saw smoke from Mei Lan’s building.

- Helen Davidson Shanshan Kao Hong Kong

Mei Lan, her husband and their children live in the Wang Fuk Court high-rise apartment complex in northern Hong Kong. Shortly after lunchtime, a fire started in one of its eight high-rise towers, and quickly spread to six others. It burned for over two days, killing at least 128 people - anumber certain to rise.

The inferno has been compared to London’s Grenfell Tower disaster. Not just for the scale, but for the now rampant questions about negligent safety standards and corruption, amid revelations that the construction site had been inspected 16 times for safety concerns and allegedly had a history of violations.

Late yesterday, Mei Lan was still not answering Lau’s calls. The phone just rang and rang.

“I’m worried she might have fainted from the heat and can’t hear [the phone],” Lau said. “People have died now; of course I hope she can make it out, but there is no contact. I’m worried, of course, I feel awful. The whole family, five or six people, is missing.”