A huge fire has broken out at Dubai's Torch Tower - one of the tallest residential buildings in the world.

The fire is reported to have started in the middle of the night, sending lumps of flaming debris plummeting down onto the city below.

Image: The fire sent debris falling onto the city below. Pic Karim Sahib

The 86-storey tower is more than 335m (1,100ft) tall, containing more than 500 apartments.

Residents could be seen in the streets outside the block, looking up as their building burned.

There are so far no reports of injuries.


Dubai Torch Tower goes up in flames

This is the second time the waterfront building has been ravaged by fire in the last two years, with a similar blaze in early 2015.

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

Image: The Torch Tower on fire. Pic: Andre Van Niekerk

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

In response, new laws were passed in Dubai earlier this year requiring buildings with quick-burning side panelling to replace it with more fire-resistant cladding.

One witness to Friday's fire said more than 40 floors of the high-rise tower appeared to be engulfed in flames on one side of the building.

Authorities later said the fire had been put out and that "cooling operations" were under way.