Three people, including a child, died after falling from a high-rise block of flats in Churchyard Row, Elephant and Castle, on Wednesday morning, the Metropolitan Police said. Emergency services were called at 07:29 BST after reports that people had fallen from height.
A man, a woman and a child were found at the scene and despite attempts by emergency crews to resuscitate them, all three were pronounced dead. Officers attended alongside the London Ambulance Service, London’s Air Ambulance and the London Fire Brigade. No other injuries were reported.
Police said the deaths were being treated as unexpected, and work was under way to formally identify those who died. Their next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers. A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said crews were on the scene within four minutes.
The incident has left investigators with a narrow task and a stark one. It happened in a residential tower in south London during the morning rush, when people were beginning their day and emergency crews were forced into a race against time that they lost. The police response now turns from rescue to identification, while families wait for formal confirmation of who died in the fall from Churchyard Row.
What matters next is not a public update on the cause, which has not been given, but the identification process and the support being provided to the relatives already told the news. For the people in Elephant and Castle, the scene has already become one of the most serious in the area in recent memory: three lives ended in one morning, and police are treating it as an unexpected death investigation.
