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June 15, 2017updated 30 Jun 2017 10:46am

‘Hell On Earth’: London tower fire disaster dominates national newspaper front pages

By Freddy Mayhew

Coverage of the tower block blaze in west London, which has so far claimed the lives of 12 people, has dominated newspaper front pages today.

Many splashed with a picture of the entire block of flats engulfed by flames, taken by Evening Standard staff photographer Jeremy Selwyn.

He told Press Gazette the image “would stick in my mind”, adding: “I have covered Lockerbie and the Troubles and Bosnia and various wars over the years. They are all bad, but this is one of the worst because it was such devastation.”

The Express ran with the headline: “High-rise horror,” the Star, Mirror and Standard second edition front page were headlined: “Death Trap” while the Metro ran with: “Hell On Earth”.

The Sun, Telegraph, i and Guardian focused on concerns over fire safety at Grenfell Tower that had seemingly been raised prior to the disaster.

The Oldham Evening Chronicle was reported to be the first regional newspaper to run pictures of the blaze yesterday.

Chronicle managing editor David Whaley told HTFP: “Whilst we are first and foremost a local newspaper and lead on local issues most of the time, the breaking-news nature of the London blaze and its seriousness very quickly promoted the story up our news agenda.”

National newspaper front pages today:

 

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