BBC presenter Lucy Hockings’ brother is ‘unaccounted for’ following a hostel fire in New Zealand that killed at least six people
- Liam Hockings is still missing following a hostel fire in Wellington, New Zealand
- Police say 92 people have been accounted for, with fewer than 20 still missing
The brother of BBC presenter Lucy Hockings ‘remains unaccounted for’ following a fire at a hostel in New Zealand on Tuesday.
Hockings and her family are ‘awaiting further information from the authorities’, having not heard from Liam since the Wellington blaze started at Loafers Lodge.
Six people have been confirmed to have died in the fire and police are treating the incident as suspicious.
Police have accounted for at least 92 people who were in the hostel at the time of the fire. Fewer than 20 are still unaccounted for.
Liam Hockings is still ‘unaccounted for’ following a fire at a hostel in Wellington, New Zealand
Image shows the fire which broke out at a hostel in Wellington, New Zealand, on Tuesday
Journalist Lucy Hockings, sister to Liam Hockings, is pictured in the BBC World News studio
A BBC spokesperson said: ‘Following the devastating fire in at the hostel in Wellington, New Zealand, Liam Hockings, the brother of Lucy Hockings, remains unaccounted for.
READ MORE: Tragic hostel fire that killed at least six is now being treated as ‘suspicious’
‘Liam lived at the hostel. Lucy and her family are awaiting further information from the authorities and we ask that her and her family’s privacy is respected at this time.
‘The BBC will do everything it can to support Lucy.’
Earlier today, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Chris Hipkins commented on Liam’s disappearance, saying they knew each other from university.
He said: ‘My thoughts are with Liam’s family and his extended family.
‘I haven’t seen a lot of him in recent years, although I have run into him at various events around the place.’
He said Hockings was ‘a bit of a character and certainly someone who I knew […] to be a very sincere person’.
Hockings studied with Hipkins at Massey University, where he trained as a journalist.
He went on to work at the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations and ultimately moved into journalism.
Firefighters inspect the Loafers Lodge hostel where a fire broke out a day earlier in the suburb of Newtown in Wellington on 17 May, 2023
A burnt out window is seen at the Loafers Lodge hostel in the aftermath of a fire in the suburb of Newtown in Wellington on May 17, 2023
Inspector Dion Bennett, acting Wellington District Commander for New Zealand Police, said after the fire: ‘We know there are many people waiting for news of family and friends – including the residents who escaped the fire and are keenly waiting for news of their fellow tenants.
‘I again want to provide the reassurance that we have a large number of officers working on this investigation, with the aim of providing them the answers they need as quickly as possible.’
Bennett said police expected the scene to be examined for ‘some time’.
They are also investigating a potential link with a sofa fire which took place two hours before the fatal blaze.
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