Britain’s most senior police officer has sought to defend the official death toll of the Grenfell Tower disaster, saying that the public would not forgive the authorities if they guessed at how many people may have died in the tower block.
Met police commissioner Cressida Dick said officers were doing their “level best” to share information about the blaze with the public as she was challenged about the official response during a radio call-in.
“Nobody would forgive us for guessing or getting it wrong,” she said during Nick Ferrari’s LBC radio show, after a caller named David asked whether she felt it was unacceptable that families may have to wait up to a year to discover the fate of their loved ones.
“I wish this wasn’t happening, I wish it hadn’t happened. But if it takes a year to do the job, it takes a year to do the job,” she said.
A team including forensic specialists, archaeologists, anthropologists and disaster victim identification specialists is still combing the tower. “They are working through every flat,” Dick said. “They are on their hands and knees, they are sifting every single bit of material to see if they can find any more traces or remains of people.”
She repeated previous warnings that the true toll of the disaster may never be known. This was because of “the nature of the population” of the tower, she said, which may have included people the authorities had not yet been told about, but also because of the heat generated by the fire, which may mean that some of the victims left “no remains that could possibly be identified”.
The police have said they expect the number of fatalities to remain around 80, despite residents and survivors claiming many more may have been killed in the 24-storey building.
Dick acknowledged the anger the disaster had caused. “This is an area which has been devastated. People are still tremendously upset,” she said.
The commissioner also addressed the recent spate of acid attacks in the capital. She said it was “completely barbaric” and said the number of such attacks was on the rise. “Until fairly recently we haven’t seen this at all commonly ... we are concerned, because the numbers appear to be going up.”
The Met and Home Office are looking at restrictions on the sales of corrosive substances as it is “easier than you or I would think it ought to be” to buy some acids over the counter, she said. “Why on earth would a normal person need sulphuric acid, for example?”
Dick also discussed the recent terror attacks in London, saying the Met had foiled five attacks in recent months, including some that were on the brink of being carried out. Asked by Ferrari whether this meant they had been minutes away, she said: “Yes.”
Barricades that have been installed on London’s Thames crossings to prevent further attacks like the Westminster Bridge and London Bridge attacks are likely to be a permanent feature, although they may be redesigned, she said.
“They are highly effective; they are not very attractive,” she said. “We need to work with the local authorities and with the mayor and Transport for London to get a similar effect, but perhaps something which is not quite as ugly ... I think they will be needed for ever.”
