The fire was first reported about 1.15am Wednesday local time, when many residents would have been asleep in their beds.
"This is going to be a long and complex recovery operation and I do anticipate that the number of fatalities will sadly increase beyond those 12".
More than 10 hours after the fire broke out London fire brigade said it was still working to bring the fire under control, though the building was not in danger of collapse. "We came outside and were confronted with the building that was completely engulfed in flames".
Eyewitnesses described people trapped in the burning tower block, screaming for help and yelling for their children to be saved.
Firefighters rescued many people and are still trying to put the fire out in the 24-storey block 12 hours on.
Cops say at least 12 people are now confirmed dead - with another 78 hospitalized, including 18 in critical condition - but firefighters are still searching the wreckage and expect the toll to rise, CNN reports.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said the fire raised questions over safety of high-rise blocks like Grenfell Tower. London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said that the building is structurally safe, but "this is an unprecedented incident", and "in my 29 years of being a firefighter I have never, ever seen anything of this scale".
"Extensive cordons remain in place and a number of nearby residents have been evacuated as a precaution", Cundy said.
A number of people have been killed in the blaze. "They said we're not allowed to get out".
Burning debris cascaded from the blazing building.
Witnesses could hear screaming from the upper floors as the flames rose and one desperate resident could be seen waving a white cloth.
Eyewitness Jody Martin told the BBC: "I watched one person falling out, I watched another woman holding her baby out the window. hearing screams".
"But I could smell the smoke... then I [saw] the fire blazing, and coming up really fast, because of the cladding - the cladding was really flammable, and it just caught up like a matchstick", he added.
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The survivors, whose belongings are presumed to have been destroyed, gathered in the nearby Rugby Portobello community centre where they were given water, clothes and blankets. "I ignored official advice to stay in your home".
"They didn't listen, we even went to the MP, Victoria Borwick, we had quite a few meetings - this is what happens".
He told the Press Association: 'I was here from 2am until 8am, and then my exam was at Twickenham so I had to journey over there - I got there a little late - and sat it.
"I was just screaming at people: "Get out, get out" and they were screaming back at me: 'We can't, the corridors are full of smoke, '" Jodie Martin told BBC radio.
"I walked out into the common area to see if the lifts are moving, to see if people are in a hassle - nothing". "I consider this mass murder", he said of the blaze.
Edward Daffarn, a 55-year-old who lived on the building's 16th floor, said the fire alarm didn't ring.
Another resident, Zoe, who lives on the fourth floor, said she was woken by a neighbour banging on her door.
The blaze quickly spread from the second floor all the way up to the top floor - 24 storeys - just after 1am.
West London Tower Fire Victims Fund will raise money to alleviate the needs of the families affected.
A lot of Londoners have already started to help.
Grenfell Tower is managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation on behalf of the local council.
A local residents association had previously warned it was anxious about the risk of a serious fire in the block.
Social media users posted images and video of the fire as it continued to rage after sunrise, while others posted images of loved ones who had gone missing after the fire.
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