Fire engulfs building in downtown Johannesburg, killing dozens

At least 63 people were killed and 43 injured on Thursday in a fire in the central business district of South Africa's biggest city of Johannesburg, the municipal government said.

Search and rescue efforts were going on, the city administration said on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

"The City of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services can confirm that the number of fatalities has gone up to 63," it said.

Firefighters and emergency vehicles were at the scene, while bodies lay covered in emergency blankets on a street near the site of the early morning blaze, Reuters photographs showed.

Media said the fire engulfed a five-storey building that had been abandoned at one stage but where people had been living. It was not immediately clear what caused the fire.

Emergency Services spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said the death toll was likely to still increase in what he described as effectively "an informal settlement."

"Over 20 years in the service, I've never come across something like this," Mulaudzi said.

A search and recovery operation was underway and firefighters were moving through the building, Mulaudzi said. At least one child was among the dead, he said.

Authorities said the fire had been largely extinguished, but smoke still seeped out of windows of the blackened building downtown. Strings of sheets and other materials also hung out of some windows.

It was not clear if people had used those to try and escape the fire or if they were trying to save their possessions.

There might have been as many as 200 people living in the building, witnesses said.