The family of a missing 12-year-old girl who is missing following the Grenfell Tower fire has urged the public not to spread unsubstantiated stories about her whereabouts.
Loved ones searching for Jessica Urbano have put up dozens of posters around west London appealing for information about the child’s whereabouts.
But missing posters bearing her photo have been scrawled with messages saying she is still alive.
In a video posted online, a volunteer organising supplies for the victims announced to a group of helpers through a loudspeaker that Jessica had been found in hospital in a “smoke-induced coma”, but her family said this is not the case, the Press Association reports.
Actor Noel Clarke took to Twitter to debunk the rumours, saying he was “speaking for Jessica’s Family” in saying she had not yet been found.
“The family are distressed by this false hope,” he wrote.
“They are still waiting for official news, no matter what the outcome.”
Jessica’s mother was coming home from work when her daughter called her to say there was a fire in the building.
Adriana Urbano told The Telegraph: “Jessica had been asleep in our flat when something woke her - I don’t know if it was the smoke or a fire alarm - so she rang me at 1.39am as I was on my way home from work.
“She said ‘Mum where are you? Mummy come and get me’.”
Her mother urged her to run out of the building as quickly as she could before the phone line cut out.
Jessica was on the 20th floor of the 24-storey high-rise when the fire broke out in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The teenager, who lived with her mother on the eight floor, said: “We cannot find him, we have been going around hospitals.”
A Facebook Live video was posted on her account that revealed her fearfully venturing into the hallway and urging other residents to come into her apartment for safety. She can be heard murmuring frantic prayers throughout and is heard to say (in Arabic): “There’s fire and smoke from beneath and above. See all the smoke above us.”
Ibrham, whose position on her Facebook page is listed as executive director at a Saudi Arabian charity, can be heard uttering reassurances to her family but also asking how they are supposed to get out of the building.
