Grenfell Tower residents urge visitors to stop taking selfies: 'You want to slap the phones out of their hands'
West London residents have expressed outrage at the influx of visitors taking selfies in front of Grenfell Tower and urged guests to refrain from partaking in grief tourism.
Numerous signs have been erected around the fire-ravaged 24-storey west London building urging visitors to stop taking pictures please and stop taking selfies.
Bystanders are said to be taking photos in front of the blackened skeleton without paying their respects to the 79 people who lost their lives in the inferno or engaging in relief efforts.
Wayne Kilo Lewis, who lived in the attached block to Grenfell for almost three decades, told The Independent anger among local residents was rising.
The 36-year-old, who lost a number of friends in the deadly fire, said locals and volunteers were telling visitors taking selfies to show some respect but they were ignoring their warnings and continuing to take photos.
People are saying show some respect this is not the time and place for it but they have continued doing it and just walked away to do it elsewhere, he recalled.
You dont want to confront them because its all so sensitive but it gets to the stage you have so much upset and rage you just want to slap the phone out of their hands.
He added: Its a disgusting sight which people who are trying to grieve do not want to see or ought to see. All the years in and out of that tower block, I could not physically stand there and look at the building because it was too overwhelming and emotional imagining the people trying to escape, and then people around you are having a laugh.
Mr Lewis, who has lived in the adjoining block from the day he was born, claimed the groups of visitors were made up of people who had made the journey down from further afield and some young people from the area.
The kids think its a normal thing but the adults should know better, he added. It is heartbreaking to behave like that in front of people who have nothing. The residents have had to stand up to say this is not a tourist attraction or somewhere to have fun.
If youre going to go to such a tragic area, pay respect, console people, talk to people, dont just use that opportunity as a selfie moment or act like its a party turning up in bright clothes and fresh trainers like its Notting Hill Carnival and chasing girls to get their numbers.