Hundreds of esidents have been evacuated from five council tower blocks over fire safety fears in the wake of the Grenfell Tower blaze.

Camden Council leader Georgia Gould said the Taplow building would be "temporarily decanted" to allow "urgent fire safety works" to take place.

Initially, it was revealed 161 homes in the block were being evacuated before it later emerged residents living in 800 homes across five towers on the Chalcots estate were being removed.

The council had already announced it would immediately begin preparing to remove cladding from the towers.

The fire safety risk was found during checks following the fire in north Kensington which killed at least 79 people.

In a statement on Friday evening (June 23) Ms Gould said firefighters and council officials had inspected the estate on Friday.

She added: "Together we decided that the Taplow block needs to be temporarily decanted while we undertake urgent fire safety works so that residents can be fully assured of their safety.

"This means that we need to move residents from their homes and into temporary accommodation."

Meanwhile in Cranford, outer cladding from a 13-storey council will be removed "as soon as is practical" according to Hounslow Council, after it failed a combustion test.

The tower block was re-clad in 2008, and is the only cladded high-rise in the borough that has used Aluminium Composite Materials, according to the council.

Eleven other buildings in the UK, including in north London, Plymouth and Manchester, have been found to have the same combustible cladding that was used on the exterior of Grenfell Tower.

The blaze was started by a faulty fridge , according to Detective Superintendent Fiona McCormack, who also said, on Friday (June 23), that the insulation and cladding tiles on the block have failed safety tests.

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