Massive fire breaks out at Dubai's 1,105ft Torch tower

This is the building's second major blaze since opening in 2011

A massive fire has broken out at Dubai's 1,105ft tall Torch Tower.

The blaze was thought to have started at around 1am local time on Thursday (10pm Wednesday BST) before shooting up one side of the 86-storey building.

Video footage from the scene showed the flames illuminating the night sky with debris cascading down onto the streets below.

As the tower burned many gathered below to watch the fire engulf it.

One witness, John O'Nolan, filmed the scene from across the marina: "Fire in Dubai marina getting bigger and spreading up building. Lot of debris. Can’t tell which tower it is. Not many sirens."

He wrote that a second fire also began at the base of the tower as falling debris set nearby, smaller buildings alight.

"Power has been cut to surrounding buildings now. Fire at top seems to have moved to the inside, while lower floors still blazing", he added "Disconcerting: still no audible sirens. We are only a few hundred metres away".

According to Mr O'Nolan the fire is still burning at the time of writing with "at least 15 floors in the centre still alight" but it has "diminished somewhat".

A spokesman for Dubai Police told Gulf News: "It's a big fire, started on the ninth floor. Civil defence and police on the scene now to control the fire."

The Dubai Civil Defence force tweeted to say they had managed to evacuate everyone from the building safely. No one had been reported hurt.

The fire was later brought under control although "cooling" operations were continuing.

The building, which is one of the tallest residential buildings in the world, was first opened in 2011 but caught fire in February 2015.

In 2016, the Dubai authorities granted permission for extensive repair works to undertaken to fix the cladding on the outside of the tower which was damage during the fire.

It is unknown if this work has been completed.