Staff ReporterLily Allen has sensationally claimed that the true death toll in the Grenfell Tower fire is closer to ‘150 people’ in a fiery TV interview.
She also accused authorities and the media of being dishonest and downplaying the tragedy.
The superstar singer, a local resident, made the claims – citing “off-the-record” figures she said were given to her by police and fire crews – during a Channel 4 news interview.
She argued to presenter Jon Snow that a way to help the borough’s community would be to reveal the proper death toll.
Authorities have so far only confirmed 17 deaths to date – but have previously warned that the actual death toll is likely to be far higher as they continue to encounter dangerous and difficult conditions in their search.
Allen told the channel: “If we are talking about bringing reality into these people’s lives, I think what people would really like is a more honest count of how many people have actually died in this event, how many people have been killed.
Death count at Grenfell Tower has been “downplayed, 150 people died” pic.twitter.com/NSbEIJwNte
— Report Focus News (@ReportFocus) June 16, 2017
“I feel like the government are trying to micromanage people’s grieving here.
“I have never in my entire life seen an event like this were the death count has been downplayed by the mainstream media.
“Seventeen? I’m sorry but I am hearing from people the figure is much closer to 150 – and that many of those people are children.
“They are off-the-record numbers I have been given from policemen and from firemen.”
Presenter Jon Snow tried to interject and explain it was a difficult task to identify remains and the media was warning the death toll was expected to be far higher.
Allen responded: “Why is that not coming out now?
“I don’t understand.”
The interview ended.
