A mother-of-two not seen since she live-streamed from the top of burning Grenfell Tower had been told to stay inside, a friend has claimed.

Rania Ibrahim posted a video to Facebook on Tuesday night when it became clear she was trapped on the 23rd floor with daughters, Fathia, five, and Hania, three.

The harrowing five-minute clip showed the panicked 30-year-old telling friends she could not get out, while comforting the terrified youngsters. Neither she nor her daughters have been seen since.

Family friend Mustafa Almansur claimed she had been told by police to remain in the tower - prompting her to invite neighbours into her flat for safety.

He said her husband, who was not in the building that night and was joining him on a protest march on Friday, has yet to be told of their fate.

He said: "Rania Ibrahim is an Egyptian national, she and her two children were in the building, her husband was in Egypt.

"She is part of a WhatsApp group and she messaged everyone on the WhatsApp group saying 'hey I've been told by the police not to leave, I'm stuck indoors and I hear there is a fire in the building and there's smoke coming up'.

"Then everybody informed the police, the fire services and then she started a live broadcast of the last five minutes.

"The live broadcast went on until her phone died, she broadcast it on Facebook where all we could hear was her consoling her children saying 'it's OK, sit down', and praying and saying 'can people help' - that's all we heard.

"The police told them to stay in and not come out of her house, so she stayed indoors and let other people in from the corridors to come into her room.

"My sister has been distraught.

"Her husband was at the MCHC mosque where he volunteers, the mosque had provided temporary shelter for anybody affected.

"He has come back (from Egypt) and he has nothing and does not know what to do.

"He has not been officially told yet about where his wife is, he is still hoping she may be in one of the hospitals.

"We know that the fire officials have said anything above the 22nd floor they have not been able to reach, the official number and the death is not being released until they have actually been identified."