100 people are still missing, and 79 people were injured in the fire.

Rescuers continue the search for the missing.

The dead include a 37-year-old firefighter and several Indonesian and Filipino women who worked as domestic workers.

The fire, which started on Wednesday and engulfed seven high-rise buildings in the Taipo district, was extinguished on Friday.

The fire is the most devastating to hit Hong Kong in 80 years. The flames engulfed seven of eight high-rise buildings in the Tai Po district, located in the northern part of Hong Kong in the New Territories, near the border with mainland China's Shenzhen.

The complex has a total of 2,000 apartments. Each building has 32 floors.

The media reported that all the buildings were being renovated and covered with bamboo scaffolding.

The cause of the fire is still unknown. Authorities have launched an investigation and are checking safety standards for the bamboo scaffolding and plastic netting around the buildings.

Hong Kong's anti-corruption bureau said it had launched an investigation into the renovation work at the complex. Three senior executives at Prestige Construction & Engineering Company, which carried out the renovation, have been arrested in connection with the fire. Hong Kong's building watchdog has ordered the company to stop work on all 28 projects.

Meanwhile, security police on Saturday detained a 34-year-old activist who had distributed flyers in metro stations and collected 10,000 signatures for an online petition demanding that the perpetrators be held accountable. The activist faces criminal charges for incitement, but the petition is no longer available online.

This is the deadliest fire in Hong Kong since 1948, when an explosion and subsequent fire killed 135 people.