Hong Kong high-rise fire: Death toll rises to 65, dozens still missing and 3 arrested

Hong Kong police have arrested three people after a massive fire tore through a high-rise housing complex, leaving at least 65 people dead in the city’s deadliest blaze in three decades.

HONG KONG — The deadly inferno that tore through a high-rise housing estate in Hong Kong killed at least 65 people, authorities said Thursday, with dozens of residents still feared trapped on upper floors.

Authorities arrested three people and launched a criminal investigation into the blaze, the Chinese territory’s deadliest in seven decades, which firefighters had battled for more than 24 hours.

John Lee, Hong Kong’s top leader, said Thursday evening local time that the fire at Wang Fuk Court in the northern district of Tai Po was “largely under control,” and that 55 people had been rescued.

Firefighters were still working their way up to rescue residents trapped by intense heat and the thick smoke that was pouring out of the complex.

A 48-year-old woman named Cindy, who declined to give her full name for privacy issues, said she grew up in Wang Fuk Court and felt “very sad” and “helpless” to see her parents’ home completely burned down.