The death toll from the London tower block fire has risen to 17 and the figure is expected to rise further, police said on Thursday.

“Sadly, I can confirm that the number of people that have died is now 17,” London police commander Stuart Cundy told reporters.

“There is still a number of people who are receiving treatment in hospital. There are 37 people receiving treatment, of which 17 are still in critical care.”

The fire engulfed a 24-storey building in west London in the early hours of Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, Danny Cotton, said firefighters have not started going into the building yet.

“There is still some smoke coming out from the building that is due to the fact that obviously on the upper floors there are still some very small pockets of fire remaining. However, due to the – obviously – the nature of the building at the moment we are not sending firefighters in there because it’s not structurally, you know, safe for them to go right out to the edges of the building now,” he said.

“So, whilst we’ve been doing some overnight watching briefs and firefighting from inside the central part of the building, obviously, we don’t want to put any firefighters at risk so there will be some smoke continuing to come from the building.”