HONG KONG - Firefighters were still dousing a devastating fire which ripped through a Hong Kong high-rise complex, killing at least 44 people and leaving hundreds missing, according to authorities.
The inferno -- the financial hub's worst in decades -- took hold on Wednesday afternoon in an eight-building housing estate with 2,000 apartments and sent shockwaves through the city, which has some of the world's most densely populated and tallest residential blocks.
Police said early on Thursday they arrested three men in connection with the fire, after flammable materials left during maintenance work caused the blaze "to spread rapidly beyond control".
Officers searched premises in a separate neighbourhood on Thursday morning, taking away documents in binders in relation to the three people arrested, who police suspect "acted with gross negligence" by leaving foam packaging at the site of the fire.
Intense flames first took hold on bamboo scaffolding on several 31-storey apartment blocks of Wang Fuk Court on Wednesday in the northern district of Tai Po, which was undergoing estate-wide repairs.
An AFP reporter heard loud cracking sounds, possibly from the burning bamboo, and saw thick plumes of smoke billowing from the buildings as flames and ash reached high into the sky.
A government spokesman told AFP that 56 people were being treated in hospital. Sixteen were in a critical condition, 24 in a serious condition and 16 were stable.
City leader John Lee said in the early hours of Thursday that 279 were unaccounted for, though firefighters said later that they had established contact with some of those people.
Lee said more than 900 people sought refuge at temporary shelters.