Major blaze rips through South Africa parliament building

A large fire is raging at the Houses of Parliament in the South African city of Cape Town.

Video footage shows a plume of black smoke filling the sky, with huge flames coming out from the roof of the building.

Dozens of firefighters are at the site battling the blaze; it is not yet clear what caused the fire.

It comes hours after Archbishop Desmond Tutu's state funeral at St George's Cathedral, near parliament.

Officials said the fire started on the third-floor offices and quickly spread to the National Assembly (the parliament's lower house) chamber, reports the BBC's Nomsa Maseko in Cape Town.

No injuries have been reported and there's no indication of what may have started it, our correspondent adds.

Fire and rescue service officials said it could take another four hours to put the fire out completely because of the carpets and wooden floors in the building.

The minister responsible for government infrastructure, Patricia de Lille, earlier said the fire in the Chamber of the Council of Provinces (the upper house) had been contained, but the National Assembly was still burning. 

BBC