15 June 2017•Update: 15 June 2017
By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
LONDON
A young Syrian refugee has been identified as the first victim of the huge fire which gutted an apartment block in London earlier this week.
Twenty-three-year-old Mohammad Alhajali had been living in the 24-story Grenfell Tower building in west London.
A co-founder of the Syria Solidarity Campaign, Abdulaziz Almashi, confirmed the news on Thursday, saying Alhajali had worked for the organization.
Alhajali had been an engineering student at the University of West London.
The number of confirmed fatalities from Wednesday’s inferno is now 17, British police have said.
This number is likely to rise still further, Metropolitan Police Commander Stuart Cundy warned.
Prime Minister Theresa May visited the scene of the deadly blaze on Thursday, promising a full investigation into the catastrophe.
May later ordered a public inquiry into the incident.
“Right now people want answers and it is absolutely right. That’s why I am today ordering a full public inquiry into this disaster,” she said in a statement.
“We need to know what happened. We need to have an explanation of this; we owe that to the families, to the people who have lost loved ones, friends and the homes in which they lived,” she added.
