The death toll has risen following the Hong Kong high-rise fire, which is now the deadliest in decades, and three arrests have been made in connection with the blaze.

Rescue teams have begun searching apartments for survivors in four of the towers where the fire has been extinguished, and the death toll is expected to continue to rise. Another 45 people remain in critical condition in hospitals.

The fire that ripped through high-rise residential towers sheathed in flammable bamboo scaffolding may have been spread by unsafe scaffolding and foam materials used during maintenance work, police said In November 1996, 41 people died in a commercial building in the Kowloon district.