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LONDON — Thousands of residents from 650 London flats were evacuated on Saturday due to fire safety fears in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, but dozens refused to leave their homes, according to local officials.

Four of the five Chalcots Estate towers in Camden, north London, were deemed unsafe after they were found to use cladding similar to that on Grenfell, widely blamed for the rapid spread of the massive blaze last week that is presumed to have killed 79 people.

Some 27 high-rise buildings in 15 local authorities have already failed urgent fire tests conducted after Grenfell, the government announced on Saturday, raising fears that thousands more may need to leave their homes.

Around 4,000 residents from all five Chalcots towers were initially evacuated, but one of the five — Blashford — was deemed safe and residents allowed to return.

Other residents faced chaos, with temporary accommodation offered in a local leisure centre and hotels, but some refused to move.

Camden Council leader Georgia Gould told BBC News that 83 residents had refused to leave, adding the situation “will become a matter for the fire service”.

Outside one of the leisure centres, evacuees accused the authorities of sowing “panic”.

“At 8:30pm (1930GMT) yesterday they told us: ‘you have to leave’, I don’t understand why,” Murtaza Taha, 27, told AFP.

“They made people panic. Inside [the centre], they are all afraid, they are all crying.

“They say they are going to find us a place to stay, they say for two to four weeks, but you never believe the council. If they say weeks, they mean months.”

 Rosie Turner, 27, said she had initially refused to come because of concerns over her nine-week-old baby.

“There is nothing for him here, everyone is on top of each other,” she explained.

“They should have done it in a proper and organised way, we could have arranged to stay with our family,” she added.

“Today I’m gonna go back to my flat, I don’t care.” 

‘Frightening’

Council leader Gould acknowledged it was “a scary time” but vowed to make sure that they stay safe.

“The cost we can deal with later,” she added.

The council has booked hotels across London and the works are expected to take up to four weeks.

In an update early Saturday, the council said it had secured “hundreds of hotel beds for Chalcots’ residents”.

 Prime Minister Theresa May said on Saturday that the government would do “what is necessary” to ensure people would have somewhere to stay.

Around 600 tower blocks are enclosed in potentially deadly cladding, with councils in Manchester, Portsmouth and London all announcing they were to immediately remove cladding from 13 structures. 

On Friday, police said that manslaughter charges could be brought over the Grenfell inferno, after finding that the fire started with a faulty fridge and the building’s cladding had failed safety tests.

Fiona McCormack from the London police said that tiles and insulation on the outside of the building “don’t pass any safety tests.”

 McCormack said police were investigating companies involved in the building and refurbishment of the tower, and possible “health and safety and fire safety offences”.

The cladding was installed on the 24-storey council-owned Grenfell Tower, which was built in 1974, as part of a refurbishment completed last year.

It has prompted a wider review of social housing which has identified at least 600 towers in England with similar cladding.

Toll may remain unknown 

McCormack said all “complete bodies” had been removed from the burnt-out tower and there was “a terrible reality that we may not find or identify everyone who died due to the intense heat”.

She said officers had been through all levels of the tower but that the full forensic search could take until the end of the year.

Police fear the toll may be higher because some residents may have been living in the tower illegally.

May stressed on Thursday that all Grenfell victims, regardless of their immigration status, would be able to access whatever help they need.

“We will work with and support the emergency services and relevant authorities to safeguard the public,” she said.

Six men and three women killed in the Grenfell inferno have been formally identified.

They are Mohammad Alhajali, 23; Khadija Saye, 24; Abufars Ibrahim, 39; Khadija Khalloufi, 52; and Anthony Disson, 65, while the identities of three men and one woman have not been made public at the request of their families.

Nine patients remain in hospital, of which three are in a critical condition.

Meanwhile the government ordered immediate checks on the Hotpoint FF175BP fridge freezer model blamed for the blaze.

LONDON — Makram Ali, pronounced dead at the scene of a terror attack on Muslims in London, was a "quiet, gentle" grandfather, his family said on Thursday.

Ali, 51, died from multiple injuries following Monday's attack, police said.

Ali collapsed with a leg problem and was being attended to by fellow worshippers leaving late-night Ramadan prayers at Finsbury Park Mosque, north London, when a van careered into them.

Preliminary findings from a post-mortem examination found that he "died of multiple injuries", police said.

Ali came to Britain from Bangladesh when he was 10. He was married with four daughters and two sons, and had two grandchildren. He was a regular at his local mosque.

His family said they were "devastated" by his death.

"Our father was a quiet, gentle man," they said in a statement issued via the police.

"He had some form of collapse because of his weak leg, a condition he suffers from, before recovering, sitting up and expressing a wish to return home, only to then become a victim of this horrific incident.

"We wish everyone to know what a loving man he was, he spent his whole life without any enemies, choosing a quiet life instead."

 They said he avoided political and social discussion, took comfort in spending time with his family, and was "always ready to make a funny joke when you least expected".

"We'd especially like to thank those people who helped our father in his last moments," his relatives added.

Police were called at 12:21am on Monday and Ali was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:04am.

Nine other people were taken to hospital. Three patients are still being treated, two of whom are in a critical condition.

Darren Osborne, 47, a father of four from the Welsh capital Cardiff, was arrested on suspicion of "the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism including murder and attempted murder".

Police have a warrant to hold him until early Saturday.

The police said counter-terror officers had spoken to 28 witnesses at the scene but issued an appeal for more information about the van's movements before the attack.

The van was driven from Cardiff at around 8:20am on Sunday, police believe.

Detectives have trawled through 80 hours of security camera footage so far, visited 140 locations and recovered 33 digital devices from several addresses in Wales.

Prince Charles visited the scene of the attack on Wednesday and delivered a message of solidarity from his mother Queen Elizabeth II.

The heir to the throne said he was deeply impressed by Mohammed Mahmoud, the imam who shielded the suspect until police arrived, fearing a mob attack.

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — At least 34 people were killed on Thursday when a Taliban car bomb struck a bank in Afghanistan's Lashkar Gah city as people were queueing to withdraw salaries, the latest bloody attack during the holy month of Ramadan.

Dozens of wounded people were rushed to hospital on makeshift stretchers after the bombing at New Kabul Bank which upturned vehicles, left the area littered with charred debris, and sent a plume of smoke into the sky.

The attack comes as the Taliban ramp up their nationwide spring offensive despite government calls for a ceasefire during Ramadan and as the US appears set to boost its troop presence in the country.

The bomb tore through a queue of civilians and government employees who had lined up outside the bank to collect their salaries ahead of the Eid holidays marking the end of Ramadan.

"At least 34 people were killed and 58 others wounded in today's bombing," the provincial government said in a statement.

This was the third attack on this bank since 2014, with the Taliban claiming their target was Afghan soldiers and police on their way to draw salaries. But the government said most of the victims were civilians, including women and children.

For years Helmand province, of which Lashkar Gah is the capital, was the centrepiece of the Western military intervention in Afghanistan, but it has recently slipped deeper into a quagmire of instability.

The Taliban effectively control or contest 10 of the 14 districts in Helmand, blighted by a huge opium harvest that helps fund the insurgency, and have repeatedly threatened to seize Lashkar Gah. 

Intense fighting last year forced thousands of people to flee to Lashkar Gah from neighbouring districts.

Since they launched their spring offensive in late April, the Taliban have been mounting lethal assaults on the Afghan army and police outposts in Helmand.

Washington is soon expected to announce an increase in the US military deployment to bolster Afghan forces as they struggle to contain the insurgency. American military commanders in Afghanistan have requested thousands of extra boots on the ground.

US troops in Afghanistan now number about 8,400, and there are another 5,000 from NATO allies, a far cry from the US presence of more than 100,000 six years ago. They mainly serve as trainers and advisers.

Pentagon chief Jim Mattis this month acknowledged that America is still "not winning" in Afghanistan nearly 16 years after the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime.

Mattis said he will present a new US military strategy for Afghanistan, along with adjusted troop numbers, in the coming weeks to US President Donald Trump.

The Afghan conflict is the longest in American history, with US-led forces at war since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.

BRUSSELS — Belgium said on Wednesday a Moroccan man carried out a foiled terrorist attack with a nail bomb at a busy Brussels train station, the latest in a wave of attacks to hit Europe.

The 36-year-old man, identified only as O.Z, shouted "Allahu Akbar" and tried to detonate a suitcase in a group of passengers at Brussels Central station before a soldier shot him dead on on Tuesday.

The suspect, from the largely immigrant Brussels neighbourhood of Molenbeek which has been linked to a number of previous attacks, was not known to police for terrorism offences.

"It could have been much worse," Belgian Federal Prosecutor's spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt told a news conference. "It is clear that he wanted to cause more damage than he did."

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said a "terrorist attack has been prevented" in the city that hosts the EU and NATO headquarters.

But he said that while security would be stepped up, the country's terror alert level would be kept stable.

"We are not allowing ourselves to be intimidated by terrorists," he added.

The blast came a day after a man mowed down Muslims near a mosque in London, and a suspected Islamist on a terror watchlist rammed a car laden with weapons into a police vehicle in Paris.

Brussels has been on high alert since suicide bombers struck Zavantem Airport and the Maalbeek metro station near the EU quarter in March 2016, killing 32 people and injuring hundreds more.

The Daesh terror group claimed the attacks, which were carried out by the same Brussels-based cell behind the November 2015 suicide bombings and shootings in Paris which left 130 people dead.

'Nails and gas bottles' 

In Tuesday's incident, the man failed to cause any casualties.

He entered the station and twice approached a group of around 10 passengers, the second time standing in the middle of them, prosecutors said.

"He grabbed his suitcase while shouting and causing a partial explosion. Fortunately nobody was hurt," Van Der Sypt said.

"The suitcase immediately caught fire. The man then left his luggage burning and went down to the platform in pursuit of a station master. Meanwhile the bag exploded a second time more violently. This bag contained nails and gas bottles", he added.

"The man then returned to the hall where he rushed to a soldier shouting 'Allahu Akbar' [God is Greatest]. The soldier immediately opened fire and hit the individual several times."

 The man, who died instantly, was not wearing a suicide belt, contrary to some Belgian media reports, he said.

"He was not known to the authorities for any terrorism connection," Van Der Sypt said, declining to give the man's full name while the investigation continues.

Interior Minister Jan Jambon underlined what a close call passengers had when he said the "big explosion did not happen." 

Police later raided the man's home in Molenbeek, home to some of the jihadists involved in the Paris and Brussels attacks.

'People crying, shouting' 

Belgium would keep its terror alert level at three on a scale of four, Michel said after chairing a meeting with his national security council.

Events in Brussels including a concert by rock band Coldplay were set to continue, although authorities said there would be extra security and warned people not to bring backpacks.

The busy Central Station in the heart of Brussels, which sits just beside the Grand Place tourist attraction, reopened around 8:00am (0600 GMT) on Wednesday, railway authorities said.

Belgian rail company spokeswoman Elisa Roux said "there were people crying, there were people shouting" after the explosion.

Witness Nicolas Van Herrewegen, a railway employee, said he had gone down to the station's mezzanine level on Tuesday night after hearing somebody shouting.

"Then he yelled 'Allahu Akbar', and he blew up a wheeled suitcase," Van Herrewegen told reporters. 

"It wasn't exactly a big explosion but the impact was pretty big. People were running away."

 He described the suspect as well built and tanned with short hair, wearing a white shirt and jeans.

Soldiers have been deployed at railway stations and landmark buildings in Belgium since the Paris terror attacks, when a link to Brussels was first established. 

MARAWI, Philippines — Extremists occupied a primary school and took hostages in a southern Philippine village on Wednesday, a few hours drive from a city where other militants were fighting a month-long war, authorities said.

Hundreds of gunmen initially attacked a lightly guarded military outpost at dawn, with about 30 then taking over the school and using civilians as human shields, the military said.

"As of now they are in the school holding the civilians. They are using them as human shields," Captain Arvin Encinas, spokesman for the army division with responsibility for the area, told AFP by phone.

Encinas said the gunmen had planted improvised bombs around the school, a small building in a rural area, and that soldiers had surrounded it.

There were about 20 hostages taken from houses nearby, but no students, Antonio Maganto, the region's education spokesman, told AFP, although he said the exact numbers could not be confirmed.

The unrest occurred in Pigkawayan, a farming town about 160 kilometres from Marawi where fighters linked to the Daesh terror group have been battling troops for a month in a conflict that has claimed hundreds of lives.

Armed forces spokesman Restituto Padilla said the attackers at Pikgawayan belonged to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), one of four groups in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao that have pledged allegiance to Daesh.

Local police said the BIFF attack may have been intended to help the militants in Marawi by distracting the military. 

Padilla said the gunmen attacked the outpost at daybreak, then exchanged fire with troops in the morning before retreating in a hit-and-run assault typical of BIFF fighters who are based in Muslim communities in the area.

"It's already resolved. The enemy has withdrawn... they failed," Padilla said late on Wednesday morning. 

However about six hours later Encinas reported the hostage crisis at the school.

Padilla then confirmed militants had taken over the school, and said the military would seek to broker a solution.

"I hope this will be resolved peacefully and I hope there will be negotiations for the sake of the people they are holding hostage," he said on the local GMA television network.

Encinas and Padilla said there had also been skirmishes throughout the day outside of Pigkawayan, which is surrounded by marshlands, mountains and farmlands. 

Those areas are largely lawless areas with mixed Muslim-Christian communities where the BIFF, other Muslim rebels and political warlords hold sway.

Pigkawayan Mayor Eliseo Garsesa said about 200 gunmen were involved in the initial assault.

Hardline groups 

Muslim rebels have been fighting for more than four decades for an independent or autonomous region in the south of the mainly Catholic nation, with the conflict claiming more than 120,000 lives.

The major rebel organisations have signed, or are pursuing, peace deals with the government, but small hardline groups such as the BIFF have vowed to continue fighting.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law across Mindanao, home to 20 million people, on May 23 immediately after fighters flying the Daesh flag rampaged through Marawi.

Their assault on Marawi ignited an unprecedented urban war that has claimed hundreds of lives and which Duterte has warned is part of a Daesh campaign to establish a base in Mindanao.

The fighting has left Marawi, the most important Muslim city in the Philippines, largely in ruins.

The militants involved in the Marawi fighting are mostly from the Maute and Abu Sayyaf organisations, which have united with the BIFF under the Daesh umbrella, according to the government.

The military has said foreign fighters, including those from Chechnya, Indonesia and Malaysia, have also joined the Marawi conflict.

Daesh has ambitions of setting up a self-styled “caliphate” in Southeast Asia — home to largely Muslim nations like Indonesia and Malaysia — as the group loses territory in Iraq and Syria.

The BIFF was blamed for attacking Christian communities in Mindanao in 2008, triggering a conflict that claimed about 400 lives and forced 600,000 people to flee their homes. 

PARIS — Questions arose Tuesday over how a known radical who rammed a car laden with weapons and gas canisters into a police van on Paris’ Champs-Elysees was able to hold a firearms licence.

Adam Djaziri, a 31-year-old who had been on a watchlist for extremists since 2015, was killed on Monday afternoon as his car smashed into the van on the French capital’s most famous avenue.

Two handguns and a Kalashnikov-style assault rifle were found in the car, while a weapons stash was found at the home of the assailant, who died in the incident.

Djaziri’s father, who has since been detained, told AFP his son practised shooting as a sport, and a source close to the probe said he had nine registered weapons including pistols and an assault rifle.

Moreover, the head of the French Shooting Federation said police had visited Djaziri’s shooting club to enquire about him — implying they knew about his keen interest in guns. 

The attempted attack comes with France still under a state of emergency after a wave of extremist assaults that have left more than 230 people dead since 2015.

As the month-old government of President Emmanuel Macron prepares to unveil a tougher new anti-terrorism law, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe expressed dismay that Djaziri was able to have a gun permit.

“What I know at this stage is that the first weapons permit was given before this individual was flagged up,” he said in an interview with BFM television and RMC radio, but he added that “no one can be satisfied — and certainly not me” that Djaziri was able to possess dangerous weapons after being put on a watchlist. 

French Shooting Federation chief Philippe Crochard said Djaziri had been licensed for six years, and a source close to the probe said the attacker had requested a renewal of his permit in February.

“Two policemen came in October 2016 and asked questions about this person. It isn’t normal procedure, so I assume they had their reasons,” Crochard told AFP.

Relatives detained 

Djaziri’s ex-wife, brother and sister-in-law were detained late on Monday after police questioned them at the family home in Plessis-Pate south of Paris. Djaziri’s father was also taken into custody, a judicial source said. 

Raised in a strictly Salafist Muslim family, Djaziri had no criminal record but caught the attention of authorities after making several trips to Turkey — a route used by many European fighters heading to Syria — which he said were for work.

Burn marks were found on Djaziri’s body but it was not yet clear how he died, a source close to the investigation said. There were no other casualties from the attempted attack, and no group claimed responsibility.

Since the large-scale Paris attacks in November 2015 and last year’s Nice truck attack, France has seen a string of smaller assaults targeting security forces.

Djaziri died just a short distance from the spot on the Champs-Elysees where an extremist shot dead a police officer two months ago. 

Earlier this month an Algerian man attacked a policeman with a hammer outside Notre Dame cathedral, another key tourist draw, while troops shot dead a man at the capital’s Orly airport in March after he attacked a soldier on patrol.

In February, a man armed with a machete in each hand attacked four soldiers patrolling outside the Louvre museum.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said Monday that the Champs-Elysees incident “shows once again that the threat level remains extremely high in France”.

Emergency measures 

Few details have emerged of the new anti-terrorism law due to be unveiled Wednesday.

But a draft leaked to the daily Le Monde has sparked concern among civil liberties campaigners who worry it could make some emergency measures permanent, such as the ability to conduct searches at any time of day or night and to restrict suspects to a certain geographic area.

The bill may also empower officials to shut down places of worship on the grounds of seeking to prevent a possible future attack.

The current state of emergency is due to expire on July 15 but the government is seeking to extend it until November 1.

ILIGAN, Philippines — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte apologised on Tuesday for a military offensive that has left the nation’s main Muslim city in ruins, but said it was needed to crush militants linked to the Daesh terror group.

Duterte also vowed that US-backed air strikes on Marawi would continue, as the conflict entered its fifth week with no sign of an end and its reported death toll climbed towards 370.

“I am very, very, very sorry that this happened to us. I hope that soon you will find it in your heart to forgive my soldiers and government and even me,” Duterte said in a speech at an evacuation centre near Marawi for people who have fled the fighting.

The fighting has seen Marawi, considered the Muslim capital of the largely Catholic Philippines, turn from a bustling trading centre into one resembling war-torn cities in Iraq or Syria.

It began when hundreds of militants waving black Daesh flags rampaged through Marawi on May 23, torching buildings and taking Christian hostages.

Duterte immediately imposed martial law across the entire southern region of Mindanao, home to 20 million people, saying the assault was the start of an Daesh bid to establish a caliphate there.

The military deployed planes and attack helicopters to blast enemy positions, using American surveillance and intelligence assets, despite the risk to civilians and even their own soldiers.

The bombing has seen entire districts destroyed but the gunmen have remained holed up in pockets of Marawi, sheltering in bomb-proof basements and moving through tunnels, according to the military.

Hundreds of civilians are still believed to be trapped in the militant-controlled areas, according to local authorities and aid workers.

Duterte said his ground troops would lose the battle if they fought without the air support.

“The military said if we don’t use them [bombs], we would be dragged even deeper into this. We will be finished off,” he said.

“If we won’t use them, our soldiers will all be killed.”

 A few hours before Duterte spoke, Philippine OV-10 Bronco planes were seen making diving attacks on Marawi, followed by deafening explosions.

Sixty-two soldiers have died in the conflict, including 10 killed in a “friendly fire” bombing, according to authorities.

They have reported three policemen and 26 civilians also dying in the conflict, with 19 residents dying of disease in displacement camps.

The government has reported 258 militants being killed, including a Chechen, a Libyan, Malaysians and other foreigners.

The militants’ main leaders, including a Filipino on the US government’s list of most-wanted terrorists, remain in Marawi, according to authorities.

LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May vowed on Monday to fight extremism in all its forms after a white driver ploughed his van into a crowd of Muslims near a mosque.

It was the fourth terror strike in a tumultuous four months in Britain.

Ten people were injured in the attack which took place early Monday after evening prayers in Finsbury Park, north London.

One elderly man, who had collapsed just before the incident, was pronounced dead at the scene, but it is not yet known whether his death was directly linked to the attack.

May condemned the assault as "sickening", saying Britain's determination to fight "terrorism, extremism and hatred... must be the same, whoever is responsible".

The 47-year-old van driver was pinned down by people at the scene before being detained by police.

He was later arrested on suspicion of "the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism including murder and attempted murder", the police said.

The Finsbury Park Mosque said the van "deliberately mowed down Muslim men and women leaving late evening prayers" at the mosque and the nearby Muslim Welfare House shortly after midnight.

Security Minister Ben Wallace told BBC radio that the suspect was "not known to us".

Stepped up police presence 

London police chief Cressida Dick said the incident was "quite clearly an attack on Muslims" and promised a stepped-up police the presence near mosques as the holy month of Ramadan draws to a close.

Witness Abdiqadir Warra told AFP the van "drove at people" and that some of the victims were carried for several metres along the road.

"He was shouting: 'I want to kill all Muslims'," another witness, Khalid Amin, told BBC television.

Ten people were hurt, all Muslims, with 8 requiring hospital treatment. 2 were in a very serious condition, police said.

One Algerian man was among those injured, the north African country said.

Locals pinned down the driver and the imam of the Muslim Welfare House stepped in to stop him receiving a mob beating.

France and Germany quickly condemned the attack and Egypt's Al Azhar institution, the leading authority in Sunni Islam, condemned it as "sinful".

"Al Azhar affirms its total rejection of this terrorist, racist, sinful act, calling on Western countries to take all precautionary measures to limit the phenomenon of Islamophobia," it said in a statement.

US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka expressed solidarity with the worshippers in a tweet but her father has so far not commented.

Community in shock 

May, who was heavily criticised for failing to meet survivors of a devastating fire in a London tower block last week, visited Finsbury Park Mosque where she met local faith leaders.

The use of a vehicle to mow down pedestrians drew horrifying parallels with this month's London Bridge attack, when three men drove a van into pedestrians before embarking on a stabbing spree — an attack claimed by the Daesh group — and with another car and knife rampage near parliament in March.

This time the attacker deliberately targeted Muslims, according to the police.

"Over the past weeks and months, Muslims have endured many incidents of Islamophobia and this is the most violent manifestation to date," said Harun Khan, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, an umbrella body.

After the London Bridge attack, city mayor Sadiq Khan's office reported a 40-per cent increase in racist incidents in the capital and a fivefold increase in anti-Muslim incidents.

Khan said it was a "horrific terrorist attack" aimed at "innocent Londoners, many of whom were finishing prayers during the holy month of Ramadan".

Mohammed Kozbar, chairman of the Finsbury Park Mosque, described the attack as "cowardly".

"Our community is in shock," he said, urging people attending prayers to remain vigilant.

'Extraordinary city' 

It was the third major incident in the capital this month, after the London Bridge attack and last week's devastating fire in the Grenfell Tower block, in which 79 people are thought to have died.

"This is an extraordinary city of extraordinary people," May said outside Downing Street after chairing an emergency government meeting.

"Diverse, welcoming, vibrant, compassionate, confident and determined never to give in to hate."

Last month, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a pop concert in Britain's third city of Manchester, killing 22 people, many of them children.

The Finsbury Park Mosque was once a notorious hub for radical Islamists but has changed markedly in recent years under new management.

Its former imam, Abu Hamza, was jailed for life in New York on terrorism charges in 2015.

Despite the change in leadership and the focus on bolstering inter-faith relations, the mosque reported it had received a string of threatening emails and letters in the wake of the Paris attacks.

Some locals came onto the street in support of the mosque on Monday, carrying signs saying "We love our mixed community" and "Leave our Muslim neighbours alone".

MANILA — Nineteen Philippine policemen originally charged with murder during President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs have been freed on bail and will be tried for a lesser crime, sparking criticism on Monday from rights activists.

The tough-talking Duterte has repeatedly said he will defend police officers involved in the bloody anti-narcotics war, although he has also described the force as “corrupt to the core”.

Police Superintendent Marvin Marcos and 18 other officers were originally accused of murdering two people inside their prison cell — one of them being a city mayor detained on suspicion of drugdealing.

The officers posted bail Friday after the charge was amended to the lesser one of homicide, said national police chief Ronald dela Rosa.

“This just shows that there’s impunity,” Amnesty International’s local spokesman Wilnor Papa told AFP.

“Vigilantes and police are getting away with it [killings]... this is a classic example that people in power get away with it.”

 State prosecutors in March had charged the officers with murder over the shooting death of town mayor Rolando Espinosa and his cellmate at a prison on the central island of Leyte.

Duterte had earlier accused Espinosa and his son of being the drug kingpins in the area. The son surrendered after his father was killed.

Authorities said at the time the elder Espinosa’s arrest was evidence the drugs problem was prevalent nationwide, justifying the brutal government response.

Marcos and his co-accused said the mayor was killed when he fought back with a gun during a raid on his cell. Other inmates said there was no such firefight.

The accused filed an appeal, arguing that the charges should be downgraded because the killing was not premeditated, and state prosecutors amended the charges.

Duterte has come in for severe criticism from Western governments and human rights groups over the war on drugs because of the lack of due process and the deaths of innocent people.

He has said police who follow his orders in the brutal anti-drugs war should not worry about prosecution.

Before the charges were downgraded in Marcos’s case, the president said he was ready to pardon him and the other officers if convicted.

Isidro Lapena, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said 3,116 people had been killed in government operations against illegal drugs in Duterte’s first 11 months in office.

Unknown attackers have killed more than 1,800 others, while about 5,700 other violent deaths are under investigation, according to police data as of May.

Many of the victims were poor people from Manila’s sprawling slums.

PENELA, Portugal — Raging forest fires in Portugal have killed at least 62 people, most of whom burnt to death in their cars, the government said on Sunday, in one of the worst such disasters in recent history.

The fire broke out on Saturday in the municipality of Pedrogao Grande in central Portugal, before spreading fast across several fronts.

On Sunday afternoon, nearly 900 firefighters and 300 vehicles were still battling the blaze as scenes of devastation could be seen around the town.

"Unfortunately, this seems to be the greatest tragedy we have seen in recent years in terms of forest fires," said a visibly moved Prime Minister Antonio Costa, who declared three days of mourning starting on Sunday.

The flowing expanse of hills situated between Pedrogao Grande, Figueiro do Vinhos to the west and Castanheira de Pera to the north, which 24 hours before had glowed bright green with eucalyptus plants and pine trees, were completely gutted by the flames.

A thick layer of white smoke hovered over either side of a national motorway for a distance of about 20 kilometres, as blackened trees leaned listlessly over charred soil.

A burnt-out car sat outside partly destroyed and abandoned houses, while a few metres away police in face masks surrounded the corpse of a man hidden under a white sheet. 

Secretary of State for the Interior Jorge Gomes said 62 people burned to death, mostly trapped in their cars engulfed by flames in the Leiria region. 

"It is difficult to say if they were fleeing the flames or were taken by surprise," he said.

More than 50 people were injured, five critically, including one child and four firefighters. 

"The number of fatalities could still rise," Costa said. "The priority now is to save those people who could still be in danger."

'Fire raging
on four fronts'

The European Union said it would provide firefighting planes following a request from Lisbon.

"France has offered three planes through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and they will be quickly sent to assist the local emergency efforts," EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides said.

Portugal was sweltering under a severe heatwave over the weekend, with temperatures topping 40°C in several regions.

About 60 forest fires broke out across the country during the night, with around 1,700 firefighters battling to put them out. 

"The fire is still raging on four fronts," Gomes said, two spreading "violently".

Dry thunderstorms were thought to have been the cause, according to the prime minister.

A number of villages were affected by the main fire and homes were evacuated. Some were sheltered in neighbouring areas.

Officials were not immediately able to comment on the extent of the damage.

Spain dispatched two water-bombing planes on Sunday to aid the Portuguese fire service, Costa said.

'Didn't want to die in their homes' 

Dozens of people who fled their homes were taken in by residents of the nearby municipality of Ansiao. 

"There are people who arrived saying they didn't want to die in their homes, which were surrounded by flames," Ansiao resident Ricardo Tristao told reporters.

President Marcelo Rebelo went to the Leiria region to meet families of the victims, saying he was "sharing their pain in the name of all the Portuguese people". 

Firefighters did "all they could" when faced with the blaze, he said.

Pope Francis began his Angelus prayer by invoking the tragedy.

"I express my closeness to the beloved people of Portugal following the devastating fire," Francis said. "Let's pray in silence".

Portugal was hit by a series of fires last year which devastated more than 100,000 hectares (1,000 square kilometres) of the mainland. 

Fires on the tourist island of Madeira in August killed three people, while over the course of 2016 around 40 homes were destroyed and 5,400 hectares of land burned.