DUBAI:massive fire rips though 63-storey hotel close to city's big firework display

Panic in Dubai as revellers flee New Year's Eve party after massive fire rips though 63-storey hotel close to city's big firework display 

• The Address Downtown is currently on fire in the Middle Eastern city
• The flames appear to run up at least 40 storeys of the exclusive hotel
• The hotel is just across a lake from the Burj Khalifa, world's tallest building
• No one was hurt and the Burj Khalifa fireworks' display is still taking place

The Address Downtown is on fire, with the flames reaching from the ground floor up another 40 storeys

A fire has engulfed a Dubai hotel close to where the city is about to hold its New Year celebrations.

The Address Downtown is on fire, with the flames appearing to reach from the ground floor up another 40-or-so storeys of the 63 floor building.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze at the five star hotel, which is minutes from the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper, where the New Year's display is due to begin at 8pm UK time.

Authorities have said the display is still going ahead, despite the burning debris falling from the building.

    They have also said no one was hurt in the blaze at the 300 metre tall building, and everyone had been evacuated safely.

'There are no injuries, thank God ... of course, it will not affect the celebration,' Major General Rashed al-Matrushi, general director of the Dubai Civil Defence, told Al Arabiya.

Meanwhile, Ali Al Mutawa, of Dubai's Civil Defence, told 7Days UAE: 'We have controlled 65 per cent of the fire in the hotel and no casualties have been seen so far after evacuating the hotel.'  

The fire, which is only on the outside of the building, started on the 20th floor.

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.'

Mohammed Al Sarraf, told The National the fire was 'raging'.

'It’s gotten so much bigger in five minutes. It’s gone from just a small fire at the foot of the building and now it’s shooting up the middle and the top.'

      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

The hotel is very close to the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper, and where the city were about to celebrate the New Year