Kennington fire: Tower block blaze brought under control by 60 firefighters in London

Sixty firefighters were needed to bring a fire in a tower block in south London under control.

Emergency services were called at 12.31pm on Saturday afternoon to the blaze which took hold in a ground floor flat in Kennington.

Eight fire engines were dispatched to the conflagration at the 16-storey tall block of flats and had managed to bring the fire under control within 45 minutes.

The whole flat where the fire started has been severely damaged but the rest of the building has largely escaped unscathed, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said in a statement.

So far, at least 12 adults and six children have been treated by ambulance crews on the scene, the statement added.

Ned Alexander, the LFB station commander at the scene, said: "Firefighters have worked exceptionally hard to get this flat fire under control.

"The whole of the first floor flat is damaged by the blaze but crews have prevented in spreading further.

"Around 100 people self evacuated from the building and a number of other residents stayed within their flats."

Videos taken by those living on the estate in Kennington show dozens of residents standing in grassland around the tower block as thick, black smoke billows from the blazing flat.

Although the firefighters have brought the blaze under control and know where it began, it is not yet clear what started the fire.

London Ambulance Service have confirmed the 18 people treated at the scene were only suffering from minor smoke inhalation and were all swiftly discharged.

"We sent two ambulance crews, a medic in a fast response car, an advanced paramedic, an incident response officer and our Hazardous Area Response Team to the scene. The first ambulance arrived in less than four minutes," a spokesperson said.