At least 83 dead as Hong Kong firefighters battle burning towers for a second day

By CHAN HO-HIM and HUIZHONG WU Associated Press

HONG KONG — Firefighters battled for a second day to extinguish a blaze at a high-rise apartment complex in Hong Kong on Thursday, as the death toll rose to 83 in one of the deadliest blazes in the city’s modern history.

Rescuers holding flashlights were going from apartment to apartment at the charred towers as thick smoke poured out from some windows at the Wang Fuk Court complex, a dense cluster of buildings housing thousands of people in Tai Po district, a northern suburb near Hong Kong’s border with the mainland.

Officials said firefighters were still working on a handful of apartments and trying to enter all of the units in the seven towers to ensure there were no further casualties.

“Our firefighting operation is almost complete,”