and liam and noel gallagher have ramped up speculation that an oasis reunion could finally be on the cards a major incident has been declared after a massive fire engulfed a building in east london — partly used as a block of flats. more than 100 people were evacuated from the building in the early hours. these are drone pictures of the scene — about 225 firefighters are there. two people have been taken to hospital. let's speak to our correspondent chi chi izundu in dagenham, could you describe the situation now. over the last hour we have been

hearing a lot of glass smashing, we presume the fire brigade has been trying to gain better entity the block. you should be able to behind me the very high land is being used to try to paul waugh tell onto the top of the building. discovered in scaffolding, be believe it has been the 40 scaffolding, be believe it has been the a0 while to try to deal with cladding issues. london fire brigade said the building had a number of fire safety issues known to officials, whether they have been resolved as something that will be investigated as more what caused the fire. we had an update only from assistant commissioner patrick gobern who gave us the latest. we were called at 02aa this morning, to a fire at a mixed use residential and commercial building on freshwater road, dagenham. the whole of the building has been affected by fire, including scaffolding surrounding the property and the roof.

the first london fire brigade crews arrived within five minutes and a second crew arrived within six. an aerial appliance was also ordered and arrived within six minutes. in total, a0 fire engines and around 225 firefighters are at the scene. to allow us to focus on the incident, we have declared a major incident. the building has a number of fire safety issues known to the london fire brigade. a full simultaneous evacuation of the building was immediately carried out, with a significant search and rescue operation, which is still underway at this stage. two people have been taken to hospital by the london ambulance service. the london fire brigade

control officers have taken 16 calls to this fire, including successfully giving vital fire survival guidance to a number of people using our fire survival guidance app, which allows information to be exchanged between our control and the ground in a timely, an accurate and consistent manner. we also are using new technology to support us at this fire, including our drones, our 6a metre and our 32 metre turntable ladders. this provides our incident command team with a vantage point for the scene, and it also allows us high reach firefighting using water towers. the brigade has stood up its full strategic response arrangements to deal with the incident, and a rest centre has been set up at becontree heath leisure centre. london fire brigade officers with our partners are stationed at the rest centre to support residents. the fire is producing heavy smoke. we're asking local residents

to keep their windows and doors closed for the time being, and freshwater road is closed to traffic, so we're asking people to avoid the area where possible. the cause of the fire at present is unknown, but a full and thorough investigation into the incident and its cause will take place in due course. we will provide you with further updates as the incident progresses. a number of residents have actually returned from the hospital, the cuddly do not want to appear on camera because they say there are still in shock. one resident told me a little while ago that he was woken up a little while ago that he was woken up to the smell of smoke and he went to hospital. he says he is still an

shock as he was running downstairs to try to flee the fire. another resident who says six months pregnant could smell smoke and thought it was her here drier and then she realised it was not an she book up a husband and went to the cordon could still smell smoke, she said there was no alarm and no one was calling out to help them escape. she says she ran down outside and was then taken to the local leisure centre. residents are quite an shock that this has happened and it is still going on, be had yet to find out whether the file is under control. london fire brigade have told us they plan to give us an update within half an hopefully to find out whether everyone has been evacuated because that was another concern and if they managed to gain control of the fire. we are showing the drone shots of the building,

absolutely destroyed and smoke coming out, i wonder what sort of support these residents are being offered. the residents have been told to go to the local leisure centre where before i got here i went there and there was a of them who had carry bags, little it grabbed what they could before fleeing the block of flats. the resident dimension two has just been released from hospital said he fled with nothing so he is trying to find a way to get to the leisure centre about a 25 minute walk from here. he will have to walk ten minutes to get a bus but he said he is so shaken up, he and his family had been woken up up, he and his family had been woken up in the small hours because that is what we must not forget, this happened around 2:a0am when most people were asleep and some

residents said people were banging on doors, we believe any flights thatis on doors, we believe any flights that is about six floors and each floor has about ten flats and people were evacuated by the fire brigade who got you within five minutes of the first call then they fled. the support they are being offered, police are trying to redirect the few that have returned to the local leisure centre but they will be looked after by other members of the police and fire brigade and the red cross. i see that as also advice for nearby residents who may not be in the building, that they should keep windows closed because of the smoke, i wonder what the air quality conditions are. at is actually quite windy so be not smelling the smoke as significantly as others might be but this has been going on for several hours and you can see fire

brigade crews on exceptionally high ladders trying to take the fire out from the top of the building which is causing smoke and keeps billowing from white to black and back again so local residents have been told to keep doors and windows shut so they do not inhale the smoke because of course as the fire burns that may be dangerous chemicals being omitted so local residents told to keep doors and windows shut, plus also local roads that have been closed. i should mention to my right is another side street, lined with a number of ambulances and there were earlier paramedics stood to my left with stretchers awaiting to see anyone needed further help. we are still waiting for an update from london fire brigade and we are

hoping to get that in the next 20 minutes about whether anyone is still in the building, an update on those taken to hospital and whether the fire has been contained. thank you. when that press conference happens we will bring it to you on bbc news. one reminder that we have a life page on the website and app with live updates and analysis being posted. to ukraine, where russia has carried out a massive aerial attack on the country. dozens of drones and cruise missiles were launched, and all of the country was under air raid alert. i want to show you these pictures which are from the capital kyiv where hundreds of people headed

to the subway to shelter.. after alerts were sounded. explosions were heard in several cities, from lutsk in the west to dnipro in the east. at least three people have been killed. earlier our corresponent in kyiv abdujalil abdoorrarsalov gave us this update. the drones and missiles are headed to a number of regions across ukraine, including the western region of lviv in the south of the city of odesa in the north, as well as the capital kyiv, as well in the early hours today, the ukrainian air force warned its citizens, saying that russian bombers, more than a dozen of russian bombers that could carry cruise missiles were in the air. and already at that time we were getting reports about drones, several dozens of drones heading towards different regions. and shortly after we heard explosions in the skies over kyiv,

and it sounded like it was air defence systems engaging those drones and missiles. we still don't know the exact scale of the damage following this attack, and so far we only heard about three people who got killed during that time. but clearly this number could rise later today and what is interesting is that this attack happened early in the morning when people were still getting up, they were still at home, and some of them were already driving towards work. so a lot of people were caught off guard when the attack happened, and not everyone was able to get to the shelter, to the bomb shelters. and even though the warning did come early enough, some people may simply had no time to get to the shelter. such aerial attacks have been happening frequently. it's not the first time when russia launches such a massive attack targeting different cities in ukraine. and of course, the timing of this attack is happening shortly after the ukrainian incursion

in kursk in russia's kursk region. and some observers are linking this attack to, to to those events. but such as the attacks, as i said, have been happening before as well. so it's really hard to say whether it's linked directly to those events happening in kursk region. but russia has been targeting the energy infrastructure of ukraine. they've been targeting other areas in this country a lot. and just yesterday they hit a hospital, a hotel in the city of kramatorsk in eastern ukraine, where several journalists were injured, including a british security advisor who was part of the reuters team, who was there as well. he was killed in that attack. gunmen in pakistan have killed dozens of people, forcing them from trucks and buses, checking their ids, with reports saying they singled out those from punjab to be shot,

before they set vehicles alight. newsagency afp quote a government official saying 39 people were killed. the attack happened in the southern province of balochistan on an inter—provincial highway. these scenes show the aftermath. the baloch liberation army, a separatist group based in afghanistan, has said it was behind the attacks, stating they had blocked roads entering the province in different areas. the passengers were travelling from punjab province to various parts of balochistan when they were targeted. the prime minister, shehbaz sharif, expressed "deep grief and condemnation over the terrorist attack" in a statement issued by his office. bbc urdu correspondent in islamabad farhatjaved updated me on the situation. we have the latest information from the authorities, who now say that at least 39 people have been killed in a series of attacks in the last 2a hours in the south—western province of balochistan.

authorities say that 22 of them were passengers travelling from different parts of punjab to several other areas in balochistan, when they were off—loaded from buses and trucks, their ids were checked and those who were not of baloch ethnicity were shot dead. this is what authorities in pakistan say. on the other side, the baloch liberation army, an armed insurgent group operating in balochistan, they have claimed responsibility for several attacks overnight in the province. they say they have been targeting military personnel, but the authorities on the other hand claim that those who were killed were mostly civilians. the police have recovered the bodies of at least 17 people from other different parts of the province as well. they say five of them were security personnel and the rest of them were civilians. this is a spree of attacks that started last night in balochistan,

which is the largest province area—wise, and also the richest in terms of natural resources, but also the least developed in pakistan. it has been the home of insurgency, militancy and human rights violations for several decades now. the captain of the superyacht that sank off the coast of sicily last week has been placed under investigation, according to italian media. local reports have said that captain james cutfield is being investigated by police looking into the deaths of mike lynch and six other people killed during the disaster. here, a knife amnesty and compensation scheme begins today, encouraging people who own �*zombie—style�* blades and machetes to surrender them. the scheme is being run across england and wales ahead of the weapons being banned next month. our home editor, mark

easton, has this report. radio: he's got a possible machete down his pants, l like a meat cleaver. yeah, he's been seen to put it down his pants, yeah. in greater manchester, operation venture targets knives on the city streets. reports of a man seen concealing a machete in his trousers leads officers to a residential street in salford. come here. male making off! come here! get on the floor now. get on the floor now! the suspect scales a fence, being pepper sprayed as he flees, losing a shoe and his coat. what strikes me, this is a huge police response to a report of somebody who's got a large knife. is that typical? yeah, it will be. he's come over there. it's mainly due to how much of a high risk he is to members of the public. and the fact that he's been described as having a large machete—style meat cleaver. so, he's obviously a huge risk

to members of the public. this is what's called a desert machete. as you can see, that has got a blade of over eight inches long. zombie knives, rambo knives, machetes — weapons designed to intimidate and terrorise — can currently be legal to own because of a loophole in the law. but from the 2ath of next month, new legislation comes into force, making it an imprisonable offence to possess a wide range of what are called statement weapons. and ahead of that, police are offering an amnesty with possible compensation to anyone who hands them in. this is allowing people to claim compensation for knives that are held legally at the moment, but that will become illegal at the end of september. do you think this ban will actually make any difference to the level of knife crime? without doing it, we still would have a number of knives on the street.

so yes, i think it is the right thing to do. whether the statistics say it reduces knife crime are yet to be seen. kelly brown's 16—year—old son, rhamero west, was stabbed to death in south manchester in 2021. she doesn't believe the amnesty and incoming ban will be enough to prevent future knife crime tragedies. banning these knives is not going to solve knife crime, because you can easily get a knife from the kitchen cupboard, the pound shops, anywhere. tougher sentencing? tougher sentencing when you're getting caught with that knife. with their fearsome appearance, zombie—style knives and machetes have become status symbols among criminal gangs. before winning the election last month, laboursupported the proposed law on a ban, but they also called for more proactive intervention and investment in youth services. britain actually already has among the toughest knife crime laws in the world, and some argue that better than targeting already marginalised young people, we should be prioritising the needs and wellbeing of children. liam kotrie is a manchester lawyer who gets calls to defend young

people accused of knife offences once or twice every week. locking up children simply doesn't work. we've seen that over the years. knife crime levels have stayed the same. what we need to change is supporting young people through school, through education outside of school, and making them feel that they're part of society, and not blaming them for the problems within it. enforcement is part of the answer, a robust response to take knives off the streets. but the police would agree that what's also required are long term policies which help convince young people there's never a need to leave home with a blade. mark easton, bbc news, manchester. back to our top stood the midget instant declare that the london fire brigade, the whole building effective, two people have been taken to hospital. we have a life

page with more details and we are waiting for a press conference by the london fire brigade that they will bring us updates, cameras and microphones ready for that announcement. this incident is still unfolding, some major questions still waiting to hear about. still the question of whether people are trapped inside as the search effort continues. more than 200 firefighters at the scene, worth mentioning the cause of the fire is still unknown but what could be under way to remove noncompliant cladding on the flats. they also said that number of fire issues known to officials. people who have escaped and the bbc has been speaking to several, a lot of those

stories and testimony on the bbc life page, many taken to a leisure centre. it is also worth mentioning that a lot of these people have required medical help, ambulances on the scene. whilst we wait for that update we have also been told the fire happened very early in the morning, people walking up to the smell of smoke and had to escape, people pregnant, people who walk up and the middle of the night unsure what was happening describing seeing a smoke following them. more than 100 residents have been evacuated, this was a block of flats and the scaffolding surrounding the building was alight. as well as parts of the building, this was on fire up to the sixth floor. 225 firefighters and a0

engines have been tackling the blaze, the clear damage you can see after the alarm was raised at 2:aaam. i also want to bring you some reaction from the grenfell united group, they have said they will come to the graphic images of the dagenham fire, in the middle of the innate when many visitors would have been at home, a scenario that would have warned about for about seven years. the anxiously wait for the news that all residents and accounted for. a major question you're hoping to get answers from at this press conference. the statement goes on we

want news the ad being properly cared for by the relevant authorities. we have have also heard from the mayor of london who said a midget instant was declared which has been stood down. the leisure centre has been set up to support residents, he urges people and the area to follow the london viable advice, keep windows and doors closed and to avoid the area were possible. a bit of context, bespoke to our correspondence on the scene who said that whilst there is wind blowing there are areas where the smoke is still thick, it is affecting the air quality which is why the london fire brigade has advised residents even those not affected by the fire to take shelter and rooms and close the windows and close the windows in order not to believe in the smoke. back to the

statement by the mayor of london because he has added more thoughts, my thoughts are with all those affected overnight and i remain and close contact with the london fire commissioner and emergency services who worked tirelessly through the night to gain control of the fire. you can see pictures from the early morning when the fire was clearly trying to be reckoned with, you can see how much smoke was blowing out. this is what we're trying to ascertain, waiting to hearfrom this is what we're trying to ascertain, waiting to hear from the press conference, you can see how serious the incident as, we do not know people are still trapped in the building or whether all people have been evacuated and accounted for. as a reminder that as a leisure centre that has been set up where paul have either escaped or been evacuated have been taken. because of the fire

is not yet known, we know the under fire brigade has said the building has a number of fire safety issues known to them, they have also said this major incident has been declared so that the london fire brigade is able to focus their resources on the incident itself as they are on the scene working to bring the fire under control. 225 firefighters and a0 engines have been tackling the blaze you are looking at and the alarm was raised at 2aa am. a reminder of this breaking news, a major incident has been declared by the london fire begins after the fire engulfed a building in east london. what we know right know, two people have been taken to hospital and more than

100 residents have been evacuated, we also know the context is that what can been under way to remove noncompliant cladding on the flats and the fire brigade said there were number of fire safety issues known to officials. what we have heard from residents, one person who lives on the fourth floor told the bbc that they just returned on the fourth floor told the bbc that theyjust returned from hospital and were recovering when the fire broke out, he is concerned and told the bbc he inhaled lots of smoke and is still ensured after what he has experienced. some relatives also they are watching as the firefighters try to get the blaze under control and our correspondent on the scene said as she went to meet him he was still in

his hospital gown and socks when he fled the fire early in the morning. another person pulled the bbc it was like watching a horror movie unfold. his sectional daughter was staying with friends when the fire spread across the building and his daughter and friends were able to make it out safely. as we wait for the sprint for answers press conference as out that any people still trapped in the building as firefighters work on controlling the blaze. one person told the bbc they opened the window and could see the flames in front of them, they thought it was the most terrifying situation and experience and said it was like a do or die situation. the family on the second floor escaped safely and are now

staying with a friend nearby. others have been moved to a leisure centre by emergency services. as they try to recoup it. we also have someone else who has spoken to the bbc, six months pregnant when she woke up on the sixth floor. she said she was awake when she first smelled the smoke, she went to the window and that was the moment when she saw the fire and she began running down the stairs trying to escape from the blaze. she said the smoke was getting heavier and everyone was coughing and coming down. she did not hear a fire alarm and there were not hear a fire alarm and there were no warnings. firefighters again

still trying to contain the fire as it continues and ambulances are standing by. paramedics are standing by with stretchers in case others need help. that is one of the main questions people want answered from the press conference whether people are still there. as our correspondence have been on the scene they have reported that has been a lot of glass smashing from the building as fire crews continue to contain the fire. we will keep and i to see when the press conference happens, no one is there yet but we expected imminently and be able bring extra you here and please go on the live page for more

updates. sven goran eriksson has died at the age of 76. he was the first non—british manager of the england team, led the three lines to the quarterfinals at three major tournaments during his five year speu tournaments during his five year speuin tournaments during his five year spell in charge between 2001 and 2006. injanuary he said he had at best a year to live after being diagnosed with cancer. he has managed 12 clubs, including manchester city, leicester, roma, lazio, winning 18 trophies. the former england manager sven goran eriksson has died at the age of 76.