The last message Chris Wong received from her 72-year-old mother was a kindly reminder to wrap up warm as colder temperatures hit Hong Kong.

A couple of hours after her post in the family WhatsApp group, the frail woman¡¯s high-rise apartment block was a towering inferno. She is among 200 people missing in a tragedy that has claimed at least 128 lives.

More than a third of the inhabitants of Wang Fuk Court, the subsidized housing complex that went ablaze on Wednesday, were over the age of 65, well above the 20% average across the densely packed city.