Six-month-old baby found dead in mother's arms in Grenfell Tower stairwell

A baby girl was found dead from smoke inhalation, still held in her dead mother's arms in the stairwell of Grenfell Tower. Her father and eight-year-old sister also died in the blaze, an inquest into their deaths heard.

The harrowing evidence comes as Sir Martin Moore-Bick, a retired Court of Appeals judge, is set to head a public inquiry into the inferno which took place on 14 June.

His appointment is likely to be confirmed on Thursday (29 June), the BBC reported, with one legal source telling the news outlet that he was "highly respected" in the profession and "intellectually superb".

Several inquests were opened and adjourned at Westminster Coronor's Court on Wednesday (28 June), the Evening Standard reported.

Amongst those was six-month-old Leena Belkadi, who was found with her mother, Farah Hamdan, between the 19th and 20th floor; her eight-year-old sister, Malak, was also found in tower but later died in hospital of smoke inhalation.

Authorities have said that the total number of dead will not be known for some time but it is generally thought to be around 80 people. Police said that most of those who died were thought to be in 23 of the tower's 129 flats.

The BBC quoted police as saying there was "utter devastation inside the flats" and that some of the residenses were still too unstable to properly investigate.

Police said that they still did not have a list of everyone in the building at the time, including people who may have been visiting others, but that they had spoken to one person from each of 106 of the flats - leaving the final 23 where police believe most of those killed died.

Another of the inquested opened and adjourned was that of 23-year-old Mohammed Al Haj Ali, a Syrian refugee who was the first formally identified victim of the fire.

The Met Police said on Tuesday that 18 victims had now been formally identified and their families informed.