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A huge blaze has ripped through the historic Shuri Castle in Japan, with dramatic images showing the wooden temple building completely ravaged by fire.

The World Heritage site on the southern island of Okinawa was almost totally destroyed in the enormous fire, which started from its main structure.

Crews were called to tackle the flames at about 12am on Thursday, local time. The cause of the fire is unknown. No one was injured.

Local police said the main Seiden temple and a Hokuden structure had burned down, and that a third structure was nearly destroyed completely.

The castle had been scheduled to be included as a stop on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic torch relay route.

Firefighters are still working to bring the blaze under control.

The fire tore through the castle, which is a popular tourist attraction, in the middle of its annual mid-autumn festival.

Footage on NHK national television showed the castle engulfed in orange flames. Dramatic images showed the temple engulfed in flames as huge plumes of smoke billowed into the night sky.

The blaze engulfed much of the 600-year-old complex, with people in the area were being evacuated.

The ancient castle is a symbol of Okinawa's cultural heritage from the time of Ryukyu Kingdom. It was the seat of the kings of Ryukyu for more than 400 years.

Located on a hilltop overlooking the city of Naha and enclosed by curved stone walls, the castle and its surrounding structures were painted a vivid red, and recognisable by their sloped tiled roofs.

It has been destroyed and rebuilt after many fires - most recently in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

After World War Two, the castle served as a campus for Okinawa's largest public university until the mid 1970s.

Following a restoration, the castle re-opened as a national park in 1992.

It was designated a World Heritage site in 2000.