Flames shoot up the sides of the Torch Tower, one of the world's tallest residential buildings, in the Marina district of Dubai.

Firefighters have extinguished a blaze that swept through one of the world's tallest residential buildings in Dubai on Friday.

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The fire forced occupants to flee their homes as burning debris showered down the sides of the 86-storey tower, known as the Torch Tower.

Rob Shepherd/ Twitter Burning debris falls from Torch Tower as a blaze tears through a number of floors in the 330m-tall high-rise.

Dubai's civil defence authorities said firefighting squads put out the blaze by about 4.00am (1pm NZ time) and were cooling the 337 metre-tall tower.

The tower was evacuated and no injuries were reported, authorities said.

Flames shot up the sides of the building in the city's upscale Marina district in the second blaze at the structure since 2015.

Firefighters and police sealed off surrounding streets, which were partially covered by dust and debris.

Power has been cut to surrounding buildings now. Fire at top seems to have moved to the inside, while lower floors still blazing pic.twitter.com/2Vdp08jrhS — John O'Nolan @ 🇦🇪 (@JohnONolan) August 3, 2017

By 4.00am the exterior of the building showed no sign of fire as residents and onlookers stood around staring up at the building, according to a Reuters witness.

"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," a resident who gave his name as George, said.

"The fire was very strong at that time, about 1am 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, whose name was Mohammed and lives on the 12th floor, said the top part caught fire first and then lower levels followed as debris fell.

The government said it is working on providing shelter for the ones affected by the fire.

Residents and eyewitnesses have been posting images and photos of the 86-story skyscraper on fire on social media.

Hundreds of people were evacuated in 2015 from the same building when a massive fire swept through the tower.

Dubai is one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a Gulf Arab trade and investment hub.