Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades is raising questions about corruption and negligence in the renovations of the apartment complex where at least 128 people died.

After Beijing reshaped the political order in Hong Kong in its image, the fire has become a test of how well that new system can govern in a crisis.

A blaze that ripped through a massive apartment block in Hong Kong has claimed at least 94 lives, surpassing the toll of a similar incident at London's Grenfell Tower in 2017.

While the exact cause of the deadly inferno that swept across a Hong Kong apartment complex was unknown, questions have been raised about the role of the bamboo scaffolding that enveloped the buildings at the time of the fire.

A massive fire in Hong Kong's Tai Po district has become the deadliest in the city's memory, causing 128 deaths with 200 people unaccounted-for

The injured Philippines worker Rhodora Alcaraz, 28, cradled her employers' 3-month-old baby in a wet blanket while trapped in a smoke-filled room for several hours before being rescued by firefighters, her sister Raychelle Loreto told Reuters.

Police investigators have been searching the charred shells of the tower blocks to gather evidence and determine the cause of the fire. Bodies of some of the victims are believed to remain inside the buildings. The fire broke out in a large housing complex in Tai Po, a residential district in the northern part of Hong Kong.