UPDATE 11.30am:

Local authorities in Dubai have reportedly brought the Torch Tower fire under control with all residents safely evacuated after a fire broke out in the 86-storey tower earlier on Friday.

Dubai Civil Defence said cooling operations were underway and no injuries had been reported.

Fire engulfed part of the city’s tallest residential tower, located in the popular Marina neighbourhood, about 1am (local time) sending chunks of debris plummeting to the streets below. The cause of the blaze is still to be determined.

Dubai Civil Defence:Fire at the Torch Tower has been brought under control. Cooling operations are underway. No inures have been reported. pic.twitter.com/4hHMnaRJ7T

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) August 3, 2017

It is the second major fire to engulf the skyscraper, which caught fire in early 2015. There were no major casualties reported in that blaze.

An Associated Press journalist near the scene of early Friday’s blaze said more than 40 floors of the high-rise tower were engulfed in flames on one side of the building. Residents of the building could be seen crying with several saying the fire broke just after 1am (local time).

Dubai police cordoned off the area around the building, keeping people about a block away from the fire and the falling debris.

Fires have affected several skyscrapers in the United Arab Emirates, including a towering inferno that engulfed a 63-storey luxury hotel in Dubai on New Year’s Eve in 2016.

Building and safety experts have cited a popular type of cladding covering the buildings that can be highly flammable.

The devastating Grenfell tower fire in London in June killed at least 80 people and prompted Britain to order more thorough testing on the cladding systems of its towers.