Hong Kong is mourning the 128 people known to have died in a massive fire at a high-rise apartment complex, a toll that is likely to rise with 150 still missing days after the disaster.
Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the city's worst blaze in nearly 80 years as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court complex.
Rescue operations at the site in the district of Tai Po, near the border with mainland China, concluded on Friday, though police say they might find more bodies as they comb through the hazardous, burnt-out buildings in coming weeks.
Police revised down the number of people unaccounted for to 150 from 200 on Saturday, after confirming with some relatives that they had managed to reconnect with loved ones they initially reported as missing.
Hundreds of officers deployed to search for remains found no further bodies but rescued three cats and a turtle, police officials told a press conference.
The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex, which were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh and layered with foam insulation for the renovations.
Mainland China on Saturday ordered a nationwide investigation of fire risks at high-rise buildings, especially residential blocks undergoing renovation.
Authorities have said the fire alarms at the Wang Fuk Court estate, home to more than 4600 people, had not been working properly.
Hong Kong leader John Lee, other officials and civil servants, all dressed in black, stood in silence for three minutes early on Saturday outside the central government offices, where flags were lowered to half-staff.
"Our most heartfelt thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones and with those that are now living with shock and uncertainty," Britain's King Charles said in a statement about the "appalling tragedy".
At Wang Fuk Court, police officers wearing white overalls, helmets and oxygen masks clambered into the buildings over mounds of fallen bamboo scaffolding and around large puddles created after firefighters doused the buildings for days to try to lower the temperatures inside.
Search operations could take three to four weeks to complete, Hong Kong's Home Secretary Alice Mak said on Saturday.
Families and mourners gathered nearby to lay hundreds of bouquets of flowers while some faced the grim task of looking at photographs of the dead taken by rescue workers.
Domestic workers from Indonesia and the Philippines were also caught up in the tragedy, with six Indonesia citizens dying in the incident, while one Philippines national was critically injured and another is missing.
The fire is Hong Kong's deadliest since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze, and has prompted comparisons to London's Grenfell Tower inferno, which killed 72 people in 2017.
Residents of Wang Fuk Court were told by authorities in 2024 that they faced "relatively low fire risks" after complaining repeatedly about fire hazards posed by the ongoing renovation, the city's Labour Department told Reuters.
The residents had raised concerns in September 2024, including about the potential flammability of the protective green mesh contractors had used to cover the bamboo scaffolding, a department spokesperson said.
Hong Kong's anti-graft body said it had arrested eight people on Friday including an engineering consultant, a scaffolding subcontractor and an intermediary.
Earlier, police arrested two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, a firm identified by the government as doing maintenance on Wang Fuk Court, on suspicion of manslaughter for using unsafe materials, including flammable foam boards blocking windows.
