Watch horror moment 650ft skyscraper is engulfed in flames as enormous fire erupts

A 650-foot skyscraper has gone up in flames in China, entirely destroying the building in apocalyptic scenes.

Footage shows flaming debris from the Changsha Telecom Building in China's southern Hunan Province on Friday afternoon.

The inferno was triggered by the outer cladding of the 42-storey building catching fire, according to preliminary investigations from Hunan's fire department.

It added that 36 fire trucks and 280 firefighters were rushed to the scene in the city centre.

State media has described the blaze as a "facade fire", similar to the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in west London in 2017 which killed 72 people and was started by flammable cladding on the outside of the building.

The state-owned telecommunications giant China Telecom building - which stands at more than 200m high - was completely gutted by the flames.

Dozens of storeys of the tower block in downtown Changsha "burned with great intensity," according to state broadcaster CCTV.

"Firefighters have begun work to extinguish the flames and conduct rescues at the scene," it said.

A photograph released by the news outlet shows orange flames ripping through the building as black smoke billows into the sky.

Chilling video shared online also shows terrified office workers hurrying down a staircase as they rush to get out of the burning building.

It is believed that all the building's workers were able to escape the horrifying blaze in time.

China is known for censoring the number of deaths in man-made accidents.

It is not yet known what caused the fire.

Authorities claim the fire has been extinguished and no casualties have been found.

Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, is the state's biggest city with a population of around 10 million people.