Police intensify search for missing in Hong Kong burned apartments PHOTO

Hong Kong authorities have begun combing the remains of residential buildings destroyed in a massive fire in a housing complex that killed at least 146 people and left hundreds homeless.

Those now homeless are adjusting to life in temporary housing, Reuters reports.

Police have completed sweeps of four of the seven towers that were engulfed in the city's deadliest fire in more than 75 years, finding bodies of residents in stairwells and on rooftops, trapped as they tried to flee the flames.

Thousands have turned out to pay tribute to the victims, who include at least nine domestic helpers from Indonesia and one from the Philippines, with lines of mourners stretching more than a kilometre (a half-mile) along a canal next to the doomed Wang Fuk Court estate on November 30.

Vigils are also due to take place this week in Tokyo and London. Around 40 people are still missing, authorities said.

The cause of the blaze that started on November 26 and quickly fanned across the exterior of the apartments under renovation is still being investigated. But amid pockets of public anger over missed fire risk warnings and evidence of unsafe construction practices, Beijing has warned it would crack down on any "anti-China" protests

At least one person involved in a petition calling for an independent probe, among other demands, has been detained, sources familiar with the matter said.

Throngs of officers arrived at the site early on December 1 to continue their search of the burnt-out buildings.

The apartment blocks were home to more than 4,000 people, according to census data, and those who escaped must now try to get their lives back on track.

More than 1,100 people have been moved out of evacuation centres into temporary housing, with a further 680 put up in youth hostels and hotels, authorities said.

By Khagan Isayev