See the first pictures of the charred Grenfell apartment building after the fire

These are the first pictures to emerge showing the complete devastation left behind by the inferno that killed at least 17 people inside a London tower block. 

Dozens, possibly hundreds, of people are feared dead after the devastating blaze ripped through the Grenfell Tower housing block.

Seventy eight people were taken to hospital, with 18 fighting for lives in critical condition, as around 600 residents tried desperately escape the flames that broke out at around 1am on Wednesday.

Firefighters still working to completely extinguish the smouldering block of flats more than 24 hours after the blaze started are now combing for residents, and a picture of the extent of the damage is now beginning to emerge. 

Harrowing photographs showing blown out windows, melted kitchen tables and washing machines stopped mid-load were taken this morning in West London capturing how residents abandoned their homes in horror to reach safety.

The tower block, which was wrapped in controversial cladding, has been left charred by the blaze which started around 1am yesterday.

Burnt appliances such as washing machines can be seen abandoned inside the apartments, which are now completely bereft of any of the residents' personal belongings. 

Firefighters are now combing their way through the skeleton of the building trying to piece together the chain of events and search for residents.

Nobody left in the London tower block which burned down on Wednesday morning is still alive, fire crews have said. 

Rescuers say there are still 'unknown numbers' of people dead inside, but at the moment it is too risky to try to recover them from the upper floors of the fire-ravaged and unstable Grenfell Tower.

London fire chief Dany Cotton told Sky News: 'Tragically now we are not expecting to find anyone else alive. The severity and the heat of the fire would mean it is an absolute miracle for anyone to be left alive.'

Full searches of the upper floors, where no one is said to have survived, are yet to be carried out.

In a separate interview, Ms Cotton told ITV today: 'Some of the internal structures are not regarded as safe at the moment, however the central core is, so my firefighters have been up to the top floor last night, they have done the initial brief search from the doorways.'

'So although we've been up there we haven't managed to do a comprehensive search and until we can make the building safe then I really don't want to risk the safety of my firefighters at this moment in time,' she added.

Ms Cotton said structural surveyors and urban search and rescue specialists would inspect the building on Thursday and once it was declared safe a full search would take place.