Defiant resident challenges council leader over order to leave London tower block

• Video report by ITV News Reporter Rebecca Barry

An angry resident challenged the leader of Camden council as scores of residents defied instructions to leave their London Tower block.

Around 200 residents have remained in their flats at Chalcots Estate in north London despite being warned it poses a fire risk in urgent safety inspections after the Grenfell disaster.

Some said they had been forcibly restrained from entering their own homes by security as tensions rose.

Officials have backtracked from an earlier threat of using legal action to force residents to move out - but said they must clear the blocks to allow works to make them safe.

Camden Council leader Georgia Gould took to personally knocking on doors to convince people to leave, but was faced with an angry reaction from many tenants.

Resident Steve Pirolli demanded she explain why he should trust officials after they initially approved the flats as safe in a clash caught on camera.

"The fire service had signed it off when it was finished...We can't trust their judgement," he said.

Roger Evans, who also lives on the estate, told ITV News that when he tried to re-enter the building security guards were "physically restraining" him from returning to his home.

He is one of a number of residents to report he was being intimidated by guards trying to empty the buildings.

Others said the council had not found suitable temporary accommodation for those who had nowhere else to stay.

"My mum needs 24-hour care," said Sayed Meah.

"How do you put a frail lady that can’t help herself with anything on the floor? They haven’t thought this through."

It comes as thousands of other residents faced a third night away from home after they were evacuated suddenly earlier this week.

Safety tests showed the building had the same type of cladding as was used on Grenfell Tower, and a number of other serious fire safety defects were also discovered.

Camden council said the need to "decant" residents came as a result of "a combination of cladding issues and other fire safety concerns that have emerged today including gas pipe insulation" and had to be done.