Hong Kong highrise fire leaves at least 13 dead, with reports of residents trapped

A fire spread across multiple highrise apartment buildings in a Hong Kong housing complex on Wednesday, killing 13 people and leaving others trapped inside, authorities said.

Nine people were declared dead on the scene and four others who were sent to the hospital were later confirmed dead, Hong Kong's fire services told reporters. At least 15 others were injured.

About 700 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters, officials said.

The blaze was reported mid-afternoon and was eventually upgraded to a Level 5 alarm, the highest level of severity, the fire department said.

The fire was still raging late into the night.

Video from the scene showed at least five buildings close to each other ablaze, with bright flames and smoke shooting out of many of the apartments' windows as night fell. Firefighters were aiming water at the intense flames from high up on ladder trucks.

The raging fire sent up a column of flames and thick smoke as it spread on bamboo scaffolding and construction netting that had been set up around the exterior of the complex in the city's Tai Po district. Records show the housing complex consisted of eight blocks of housing and almost 2,000 apartments, housing about 4,800 residents.

The dead included one firefighter and another was being treated for heat exhaustion, Fire Services Department Director Andy Yeung told reporters.

Firefighters deployed 128 fire trucks and 57 ambulances to the scene.

Police said they had received multiple reports of people trapped in the affected buildings, but did not provide details.

Lo Hiu-fung, a Tai Po District Council member, told local TV station TVB earlier Wednesday that most of the residents trapped in the fire were believed to be elderly people.

"I've given up thinking about my property," a resident who only provided his surname, Wu, told TVB. "Watching it burn like that was really frustrating."

Tai Po is a suburban area in the New Territories, in the northern part of Hong Kong and near the border with the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Bamboo scaffolding is a common sight in Hong Kong at building construction and renovation projects, though the government said earlier this year that it would start phasing it out for public projects because of safety concerns.