Aussie mum and daughter identified as Grenfell Tower victims

IT HAS been revealed that the last two victims identified in the Grenfell Tower inferno were an Australian mother and daughter who became trapped in their flat.

AN AUSTRALIAN mother and daughter were two of the victims trapped on the upper floors in London’s catastrophic Grenfell Tower fire which killed 71 people last year.

The bodies of Alexandra Atala, 40, and her mother Victoria King, 71, found inside flat No. 172 on the 20th floor were the last to be identified by Westminster coroner Fiona Wilcox.

Ms King and Ms Atala, who family say were “devoted to one another” were among the victims who followed the advice from council and emergency services to stay put when flames broke out on June 14, 2017.

The upper floor residents of the 24-storey building were told their flats were fire-protected for several hours and they were safe, but smoke soon engulfed the stairwell making a safe exit impossible.

The women, who had been long-term residents of the tower, were found side-by-side having suffered the same fate as their neighbours, Khadija Saye, 24 and her mother Mary Mendy.

Also perishing on the same floor were Farah Hamdan, 31, who was holding her six-month-old baby Leena Belkadi, alongside husband Omar, 32. The couple’s other daughter Malak Belkadi, 8, died later in hospital.

Victoria King was found beside her daughter.

The Australian women were trapped on the 20th floor of the Grenfell Tower (above) with others who were told to ‘stay put’. Picture: Daniel Leal-Olivas

Residents were trapped ‘screaming for their lives’ as flames raged through the 24-storey tower block. Picture: eyevine

Schoolgirl Jessica Urbano Ramirez, 12, who lived on the same floor as the Australian pair, also died in the fire.

The family of the Australian mother and daughter released the following statement: “We were devastated to hear of our sister, Vicky’s, fate, and that of her daughter, Alexandra, in the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

“Some comfort can come from the knowledge that she and Alexandra were devoted to one another and spent so many mutually supportive years together.

“They died at each other’s side and now they can rest together in peace.

The remains of Jessica Urbano, 12, were found on the 23rd floor.

“We will remember them always.”

Two days before the fire, Ms King had celebrated her 71st birthday.

Days after the fire, emergency services personnel found the two women’s remains.

The official cause of Ms King and her daughter’s deaths was ruled as being consistent with the effects of fire.

After fire broke out, the perilous position of Grenfell’s upper-floor residents became obvious as the night wore on.

An independent public inquiry ordered by UK Prime Minister Theresa May is ongoing.

But flammable cladding in a 2016 refurbishment to smarten up the block has been blamed for making the tower a death trap.

More than 200,000 personal possessions have been salvaged from Grenfell Tower’s wreckage.

Smoke continuing to rise from the Grenfell Tower blaze last June which is now the subject of a public inquiry. Picture: Matt Dunham