Les pompiers de Hong Kong tentent toujours ce matin de venir à bout du violent incendie qui a englouti plusieurs gratte-ciel d'habitation en rénovation, faisant au moins 44 morts et des centaines de disparus selon les autorités de la région chinoise. Le brasier, le plus grave survenu dans ce haut-lieu de la finance mondiale depuis des décennies, s'est déclaré mercredi après-midi dans un complexe de huit immeubles abritant au total quelque 2.000 appartements, à Tai Po, dans le nord de Hong Kong. L'événement a provoqué une onde de choc dans cette région à statut spécial de la Chine, qui compte parmi les plus importantes densités de population et les plus hauts immeubles d'habitation du monde.
Jeudi à l'aube, des appartements brûlaient toujours selon des journalistes de l'AFP, même si l'intensité du feu a fortement diminué aux premières heures de la matinée.
Vers 9h (1h GMT), de la fumée noire continuait de s'échapper du complexe immobilier datant des années 1980, doté de tours d'une trentaine d'étages.
Tôt jeudi, 279 personnes manquaient toujours à l'appel, selon le dirigeant de Hong Kong, John Lee. Les secours ont toutefois indiqué par la suite être entrés en contact avec plusieurs des personnes portées disparues.
La police a annoncé avoir arrêté trois hommes en lien avec l'incendie, après la découverte de matériaux inflammables abandonnés lors de travaux de maintenance qui ont conduit le feu à "se propager rapidement". Ils sont soupçonnés d'homicide involontaire. Le brasier s'est vite propagé d'une tour à l'autre, attisé par le vent.
Des échafaudages de bambou, emblématiques de Hong Kong, entouraient ces immeubles en rénovation et ont vraisemblablement pris feu en premier. Flammes, braises et fumée s'échappaient des immeubles durant la nuit, baignée d'une lueur orangée.
Plus de 900 personnes ont été accueillies dans des abris provisoires, où des volontaires apportaient soutien moral et couvertures. Des gens y sont arrivés toute la nuit pour signaler la disparition de membres de leur famille, n'arrivant pas à les joindre.
Certains étaient assis, hébétés, fixant avec des yeux rougis les écrans de leurs téléphones portables, espérant des nouvelles de leurs proches.
00:00Let's start with the breaking news now, and that is that at least 36 people have been killed in a fire at a high-rise residential complex in Hong Kong.
00:08We now know that more than 200 others are missing.
00:13Well, let's take you live to the scene now, and you can see the flames that have spread across all eight blocks of this development in the northern Taipo district.
00:21Among those killed that we know about so far is a firefighter.
00:26Thousands of residents have been evacuated to shelters, and it's unclear yet what exactly has caused this blaze.
00:33Well, with me now in the studio is our correspondent, Graham Satchell, who's across the story.
00:37Graham, what more do we know?
00:39Well, Mariam, this is a terrible story that we've been following for the last sort of 10 hours or so now.
00:45It's a tragedy that has developed and got significantly worse over that time.
00:50The latest update that we had was from the city leader in Hong Kong, who gave us the terrible news that the death toll has arisen to 36, and that 279 people remain unaccounted for.
01:04The first news of this broke late afternoon Hong Kong time, around three o'clock, when we first got reports of a fire.
01:13This is a very densely populated part of Hong Kong.
01:19There are eight tower blocks with nearly 2,000 flats, so you can see how densely populated it is.
01:27They're old.
01:28They were built in the 1980s, and they were undergoing renovation.
01:30So they were covered in a bamboo scaffolding, and eyewitnesses say that it was the scaffolding that initially caught fire, so the bamboo on the outside of the building, and that spread very, very quickly.
01:45Firefighters have been trying to tackle the blaze all day, but it has spread from one tower to another, and we think that now there are seven buildings in total that have been affected.
01:56Three, we think, are just about under control, but four are still on fire, and it's difficult to say where this goes now, but the likelihood is that this will get much worse before it gets better.
02:10The news coming out of Hong Kong has been terrible, and I think will continue to be terrible.
02:15Graham, thank you very much indeed for that.
02:17Graham Satchell there, who's across the story.
02:20These are live pictures that we are continuing to watch.
02:24You can see there it's two in the morning local time, and firefighters, more than 700, as Graham said, have been trying to tackle this blaze for many, many hours indeed.
02:36And as I mentioned earlier, we know that at least one firefighter, a 37-year-old, died fighting the blaze, and the government has earlier today paid tribute to that firefighter, describing him as dedicated and gallant.
02:51Now, we also know from a local councillor who's spoken to the BBC that residents are asking for help from local authorities after losing contact with their relatives, their friends.
03:04Remember, this is a complex that houses over 4,500 people, and we know that over 200 are unaccounted for.
03:14They are effectively missing. We don't know what has happened to them.
03:18So, as Graham mentioned there, this is just going to get worse, and we, of course, will try and bring you as much information as we can on this breaking news story as and when we get it.
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