THE BEREAVED of Grenfell Tower opened the public inquiry into the disaster today with emotional tributes to their loved ones who perished in the blaze.

A dozen of the 72 people who lost their lives last June 14 were commemorated on the first of six days of tributes held at a hotel in Kensington, west London.

Lead counsel to the inquiry Richard Millett QC read out the names of six victims on behalf of those families for whom “the weight of grief is simply too great to bear [and who have] chosen to grieve privately or in silence.”