Grenfell Tower campaigners save handprints of the victims

Handprints in the soot on the walls of Grenfell Tower have been saved from demolition following a campaign by the families of some of the victims of the fire.

- John Simpson

Kimia Zabihyan's article in last week's Observer, above. Handprints in the London structure, left. Grenfell Next of Kin

The government said it had paused the demolition after campaigners, one of whom wrote in last week’s paper, threatened a judicial review of the agreements ministers had made previously with the bereaved.

“I think it is a victory because, as a result of the campaign and the piece in The Observer, they had to stop the destruction,” said Kimia Zabihyan, the advocate of Grenfell Next of Kin (GNK), which represents some of the families. In her article Zabihyan described the handprints “as symbolic as the concept of the Unknown Warrior”.