A huge fire that engulfed a Hong Kong residential estate has killed at least 36 people and left more than 200 unaccounted for in the city’s worst blaze in decades.
The fire, which started on Wednesday (November 26, 2025) afternoon and was still burning in the early hours of Thursday (November 27, 2025), shocked the Chinese financial hub, which has some of the world’s most densely populated and tallest apartment blocks.
Huge flames first took hold on bamboo scaffolding on several apartment blocks of Wang Fuk Court, which contains nearly 2,000 flats in eight towers in the northern district of Tai Po and was reportedly undergoing estate-wide maintenance.
Smoke rises after a fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong's New Territories on November 26 2025. | Photo Credit: AP
City leader John Lee on Thursday (November 27, 2025) updated the death toll to 36 and said that 279 people were unaccounted for.
