Hong Kong Fire: Death toll rises to 94

Hong Kong firefighters searched through a high-rise tower complex apartment-by-apartment Friday for more victims after a massive fire engulfed seven of its eight buildings, killing at least 94 people in one of the city's deadliest blazes.

Crews were prioritizing apartments from which they received more than two dozen calls for assistance during the blaze but were unable to reach, Derek Armstrong Chan, a deputy director of Hong Kong Fire Services told reporters.

The toll rose Friday afternoon to 128 after more bodies were found in the blackened towers, and Secretary for Security Chris Tang told reporters at the scene that the search for victims was continuing and the numbers could still rise.

The fire started midafternoon Wednesday in one of the Wang Fuk Court complex's eight towers, jumping rapidly from one to the next as bamboo scaffolding covered in netting in place for renovations caught ablaze until seven buildings were engulfed.

It took more than 1,000 firefighters some 24 hours to bring the blaze under control, and even nearly two days later, smoke continued to drift out of the charred skeletons of the buildings from the occasional flare-up.

The final search of the buildings was expected to be completed later Friday at which point officials have said they will officially end the rescue phase of their operation at the complex in Tai Po district, a northern suburb near Hong Kong’s border with mainland China.

It was unclear how many people could possibly be inside the buildings, which had almost 2,000 apartments and some 4,800 residents.

“We will endeavor to force entry into all the units of the seven blocks concerned so as to ensure that there is no other possible casualties,” Chan said.