Grenfell Tower inquiry: Mother held daughter tightly 'to squeeze the nightmare away' as flames engulfed them

A mother held her three-year-old daughter tightly “to squeeze the nightmare away” as flames engulfed them in the Grenfell Tower fire, the public inquiry into the tragedy has heard.

The remains of Amal Ahmedin, 35, and her young daughter, Amaya Tuccu Ahmedin, were found next to each other in the 23^rd-floor lobby.

The body of Ms Ahmedin’s husband, Mohamednur Tuccu, 44, was recovered from close to the nearby leisure centre after the blaze.

​Winta Afewerki said her aunt Ms Ahmedin, who she called her sister, was the “the most caring person” who was not judgmental of anyone she met and would “give the shirt off her back to help you”.

The pair grew up sharing a room and when she had bad dreams, Ms Ahmedin would “hold me so tight and squeeze out the nightmares”, Ms Afewerki said.

She recalled that when Amaya was born, she would do the same for her. “That’s how they were when they were burned alive – holding each other so tight and trying to squeeze the nightmare away,” she told the inquiry.

“Motherhood brought out a layer of her personality we were all in awe of,” Ms Afewerki said. “Her daughter was the love of her life.”

She remembered the three-year old as “smart” and “a bit cheeky”. “Amaya’s laugh was infectious – her whole body would shake and she would jump up and down,” she said.

She told the hearing she had imagined the life ahead of Amaya and thought of her as her own child, adding: “I will never accept that they are gone. I will continue planning Amaya’s life.”

Another of Ms Ahmedin’s nieces, Feruza Afewerki, told the inquiry: “Those we grew up with, who shared our fondest memories with, celebrated and mourned, have had their lives stolen from them while the whole of London watched.

“It has been completely surreal and the most painful and devastating time of our lives.”

She said Amaya “loved music and would stop and dance in front of buskers in the street”.

“I miss our guitar jams and how she would love to sing [the soundtrack to the Disney film] Frozen at the top of her lungs,” she said.

Ms Ahmedin’s cousin, artist and designer Amna Mahmun Idris, 27, who was visiting London and was found on the same floor, was remembered by her husband as “the light of her family”.

“When I talk about Amna I feel the world stops. She was everything to me. I will never find anyone like Amna,” he said.

Thursday is the fourth day of commemorative hearings at the 72 victims of the blaze held in the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in South Kensington in front of the inquiry’s chairman, Sir Martin Moore-Bick.

The inquiry heard from Mohammed Hakim, who after the blaze is the sole remaining member of his immediate family. He lost his father, mother, two brothers and a sister when the inferno reached their 17^th floor flat.

“I am extremely proud of my family for remaining together in their last moments”. he said in a calm and quiet voice.

He described his siblings, Mohammed Hamid, 27, Mohammed Hanif, 26, and Husna Begum 22, as “soldiers” for remaining with their elderly parents Kamru Miah, 79, and Rabeya Begum, 64, during the fire.

His “gentle and kind” father had suffered two strokes and had mobility problems, he said, “He should not have been on the 17^th floor – we had complained about this numerous times.

“As loving children they chose to stay with their parents. I consider my family as nothing less than soldiers. They are the bravest among everyone I know.”

The sister of a Sudanese refugee who died in the tower told the inquiry on Thursday her trust in Britain was destroyed by the fire.

Fathia Ali Ahmed Elsanosi, 73, was found on the 23^rd floor alongside her children Abufars Ibrahim, 39, and Isra Ibrahim, 33.

The public inquiry into the tragedy was told that the mshe had fled persecution in Sudan and set up a new home in west London.

Her sister Hayat Elsanosi said in a statement read by a friend on Thursday afternoon: “Fathia came to this country as a refugee seeking security and safety after her struggle with the regime in Sudan, where she and her children had been subjected to harassment.

“She felt safe here in London. Because of the way she died, this now feels like a illusion for us and definitely for her.

“Our trust in this country has been destroyed. I cannot begin to describe my life without my sister, her death was a terrible shock for me and I find it very difficult to cope without her.”

Ms Elsanosi said she had been seriously injured in a fire as a teenager, making the circumstances of her sister’s death even harder to deal with.

The tributes are set to continue until Wednesday, before the inquiry moves to offices in Holborn, central London, where several procedural hearings have already taken place.