Panic in Dubai as inferno rips though 63-storey building

The Dubai Media Office said 14 people had been lightly injured and that one suffered a heart attack due to the smoke and overcrowding during evacuation. The statement said another person was moderately injured, without elaborating further. No children were among those injured. 

But a medic on the scene who declined to be identified told Reuters: 'There are more than 60 people injured with light injuries from smoke inhalation and from crowding while in the stairs evacuating the building.'

The fire began at about 9.30pm, and is said to have taken hold of the outside of the building within minutes.

Tom Stroud, 35, an eyewitness who is on holiday in Dubai, said: 'There was no bang or bomb-like sound, we just looked over and saw an inferno.

'It gathered speed extremely quickly.'  

Atieh S (@AtiehS), who watched from a nearby building, said the fire took hold in just five minutes.

She tweeted: 'People are running away! This is so horrific!!!!! Falling on people's houses.'

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 It is the second blaze at a Dubai skyscraper this year, after the Marina Torch tower was engulfed in flames in the early hours of February 21.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from one of the world's tallest residential buildings, as a large blaze ripped through multiple floors of the tower.

After firefighters extinguished the blaze, residents could see the external cladding on the corners of the building was charred black and mangled for dozens of floors.

Nobody was killed, but seven people were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.