London fire: UK minister defends govt, says it had acted on safety regulations

British finance minister Phillip Hammond said on Sunday the government had acted on safety recommendations after an earlier fire in London in 2009, but it would wait for the public inquiry to make changes in regulation.

Prime Minister Theresa May is under pressure after a devastating fire in an apartment block in London trapped people in their beds and killed 58 people last week. Opposition politicians say the government ignored recommendations from a 2013 review after another London fire killed six people.

"We have looked, obviously, at those recommendations and what has happened to them. My assessment is that we have responded correctly and appropriately to those recommendations," Phillip Hammond told the BBC's Andrew Marr show. 

Fury has grown in the local community at what people say is the slow response from authorities to the fire and a failure to inform families and friends about the fate of loved ones.

Media reports have said about 70 people are expected to have been killed, although police have not confirmed this.

Local residents also say they are angry that their safety concerns had been ignored and that people had been told to stay in their flats in the event of a fire.