UK

A mother's love as she saves her child from London tower block inferno

The devastation at the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London. Picture by Victoria Jones/PA Wire
The devastation at the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London. Picture by Victoria Jones/PA Wire The devastation at the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London. Picture by Victoria Jones/PA Wire

A SMOULDERING shell is all that remains of the Grenfell Tower in west London today, a place that was home to almost 600 people, young and old.

The events of Tuesday night can only be described as everyone's worst nightmare; trapped in a burning high rise with your family and not able to escape.

Eyewitnesses have described scenes of carnage as frantic residents attempted to flee. Those who managed to escape the inferno said it was "like hell on earth".

But as terrified accounts continue to emerge from the London tower block tragedy, it is the desperation of one mother who threw her child from the tenth floor that has stuck with me most.

Eyewitnesses told of her screams for help. As a mother of three boys I can only imagine what must have been flashing across her mind in those terrifying moments - she must have been scared, she must have felt incredibly lonely.

With the window slightly ajar, eye-witnesses said she desperately gestured for someone on the ground below to catch her baby. And seconds later she threw the child from the burning building.

Miraculously someone who ran forward managed to grab the child.

But it is also the haunting image of that woman - after seeing her child safe in someone's arms - turn away from the window, her shadow disappearing back into the her flat and into a fate, as yet unknown.

In the coming days, stories will emerge about how residents got out alive and tragically how others perished. Our hearts will go out to all affected.