The cause of the blaze at a high-rise apartment complex, remains under investigation, amid public anger over missed fire risk warnings and evidence of unsafe construction practices.

Police said on Sunday evening the confirmed death toll had risen to 146 after they completed a sweep of five of the burnt out towers. Some bodies had been found in stairwells and on rooftops where residents had tried to flee. More than 40people are still considered to be missing in the fire, police said.

Mourners queued for more than a kilometre along the banks of a canal near the burnt-out Wang Fuk Court housing complex to lay white flowers for those who died. Some attached notes addressed to the victims.

The smell of smoke still hung in the air four full days after the fast-moving blaze fanned across the exterior of seven residential towers under renovation in Hong Kong’s northern Tai Po district.

–Reuters–