London fire: Mosques, churches and temples open doors to people caught up in Grenfell Tower

People are offering food, drinks and shelter

People watch from under the Westway near the burning 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London on June 14, 2017 in London, England (Carl Court/Getty Images)

Mosques, churches and temples are opening their doors to help people caught up in the huge fire in London.

Local people are rallying around to help the hundreds of people who live inside Grenfell Tower, the block that has been completely taken over by an inferno overnight.

The centre of that response is being co-ordinated at St Clements Church, in the local area. But places of worship across North Kensington are throwing open their doors to offer people shelter, support and food.

Al-Manaar mosque said that "anyone of any faith or no faith is welcome to walk in and have some rest, sleep, and or have some water and food". Staff and volunteers were delivering food and drink to the local area.

They were just one of a range of Muslim and other faith groups offering to bring help in the form of supplies to those caught up in the disaster. Some were coming from as far as the other end of London and offering to give help in various ways.

Muslims were said to be among the first to respond to the fire, since they were already awake from Ramadan prayers. They may even have saved lives since the fire alarms are thought to have been inaudible from within the flats in the block.