Dubai hotel blazes as 2016 begins

New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Thailand were among the countries to have welcomed in 2016 in style, while Dubai went ahead with its spectacular fireworks display as planned while fire crews battled a blaze that engulfed a nearby skyscraper.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, which ran up at least 20 storeys of the building near the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper at 828m.

Burning debris rained down as firefighters raced to the scene. Injuries were reported but despite the scale of the task facing the emirate’s firefighters, the festivities continued nearby.