Death toll rises to 75 in Hong Kong apartment tower fires

Firefighters battled a blaze at a high-rise apartment complex in Hong Kong for the second day on Thursday, as the death toll rose to 75 in one of the deadliest blazes in the city's modern history, Report informs via AP.

Rescuers holding flashlights were going from apartment to apartment at the charred towers as thick smoke continued to pour out from some windows at the Wang Fuk Court complex, a dense cluster of buildings housing thousands of people in Tai Po district, a northern suburb near Hong Kong's border with the mainland.

It was unclear how many people were missing or trapped. Hong Kong leader John Lee said contact had been lost with 279 people early Thursday. Authorities did not provide updates on the missing people or how many were still inside the ravaged buildings on Thursday during a press conference.

Latest video showed rescuers searching in some apartments in the dark. Orange flames were still seen from inside several windows, though the whole complex was now largely a blackened ruin.