Dozens of firefighters battled to contain an early morning fire Thursday that destroyed part of the Paris Cite des Sciences, one of the largest science museums in Europe, firefighting officials said.

Around 30 fire trucks and 120 firefighters were dispatched to the scene where one of the museum's four 10,000-square-meter (107,640 square feet) cubes was burning so hot that firefighters could only stand the heat for 20 minutes at a time and had to be rotated in shifts, Paris fire department spokesman Gabriel Plus told the AFP news agency.

"It's still red-hot inside," Plus said Thursday morning."Wooden pallets, cardboard boxes, plasterboard, electrical cables are burning."

Adjacent exhibit halls and the museum's IMax movie theater have not caught fire but there remains a risk that it could spread, he warned.

Initial reports suggest the fire broke out overnight in the museum, which houses interactive children's exhibits as well as exhibits on space, light, geology and other subjects.

Located in in the Parc de Villette, an area of northeastern Paris in the city's former slaughterhouse district, the complex draws around five million visitors a year.

The cause remained unclear as of Thursday morning.

jar/jil (AFP, AP)