WATCH: Dubai's Marina Torch, One Of World's Tallest Residential Buildings, On Fire

A fire broke out at Dubai's Marina Torch, one of the world's highest residential buildings, early Friday morning.

The fire was thought to have started at 1 a.m. local time (5 p.m. Thursday EDT), with flames soon engulfing dozens of floors on one side of the 86-storey building. The skyscraper, also known as Torch Tower, was soon blanketed in fumes and chunks of burning bebris started falling down on the streets below.

A statement from the Dubai Media Office said: “The fire at the Torch Tower has been brought under control. Cooling operations are under way. No injuries have been reported.” Civil defense officials said they successfully evacuated the building, which has 676 apartments. The government is also working toward providing shelter for the affected residents, reports said.

It was immediately not clear what caused the blaze.

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Many social media users, including local residents, took to Twitter to post photographs and videos of the mishap. News outlets kept posting videos of the blaze.

Residents of the skyscraper too shared their tales of the nightmare. One of the residents, who gave his name as George, said: "We were sleeping and we woke up to the fire alarm and people screaming. We ran down the stairs and it took us about 10 minutes to reach from the 50th floor," Reuters reported.

"The fire was very strong at that time, about 1 a.m. Then it started calming down over the next two hours. It started on the 67th floor, that's what we were told," he added.

Another resident, who goes by the name of Mohammad and resides on the 12th floor, said the top part of the tower caught fire first and gradually it reached the lower levels as flaming debris fell.

One witness, John O'Nolan, filmed the fire from across the Marina and tweeted the updates. He wrote: "Disconcerting: still no audible sirens. We are only a few hundred meters away."

Some also offered help via Twitter and prayed for those affected by the blaze.

The Dubai police tweeted that it would be handling inquiries related to the fire and also provided its emergency number - 999.

The Dubai Media Office also tweeted: "Dubai Police Commander in Chief & Dubai Civil Defence Director General are on site following measures to control the fire at the Torch Tower."

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This isn't the first time the building has been on fire; in 2015, about 60 floors of the skyscraper were engulfed by flames. Investigators then said the tower's exterior cladding, made of aluminum panels with combustible plastic cores, helped spread the flames, the New York Times reported.

Flammable claddings are said to have contributed to at least three other skyscraper fires in Dubai. After these incidents, the Dubai Civil Defense in 2016 announced restrictions on exterior paneling on new constructions. However, these new rules did not immediately apply to older buildings, reports said.