London mayor admits public anger over deadly fire

LONDON: London’s mayor said Sunday that the Grenfell Tower fire, in which 58 people are presumed dead, was caused by “mistakes and neglect”, as he acknowledged growing public frustration and anger.

Sadiq Khan visited a church near the burnt-out residential tower to attend a service which remembered victims of Wednesday’s tragedy, when a 24-storey social housing block went up in flames.He admitted the local community, a working-class enclave in one of Britain’s wealthiest districts, was feeling “frustrated and angry” at the official response to the disaster.

“There is a feeling from the community that they’ve been treated badly because some of them are poor,” Khan said.The tragedy was a “preventable accident that didn’t need to happen and the tragedy we’re seeing is because of the consequences of mistakes and neglect from the politicians, the council and the government”.

The 1974-built concrete tower had recently been fitted with new exterior insulation cladding, which many locals blame for spreading the inferno so quickly.Prime Minister Theresa May has announced a judge-led public inquiry into the disaster. In parallel, the police are seeking to identify if any criminal offences had been committed.

Finance minister Philip Hammond said the inquiry would examine whether the regulations banning certain types of cladding were right and whether they were complied with. “That will be a subject that the inquiry will look at. It will also be a subject that the criminal investigation will be looking at,” he told BBC television.