Fire at Brazil guesthouse leaves at least 10 dead

At least 10 people have died and 11 are injured after a major fire at a guesthouse in Brazil's southern city of Porto Alegre, according to the Rio Grande do Sul state fire department which is still searching for the missing.

The firefighters said they were called about 2am on Friday and extinguished the fire within two hours, the fire service said.

"Forensics are already on the scene and have already removed the bodies. The building has been cordoned off and forensics are in charge," Lieutenant Colonel Lucio Junes da Silva said in an interview with CNN Brasil.

Junes da Silva said there is still no information on the possible causes of the fire.

The fire department said the facility did not have a licence to operate as a guesthouse, nor did they have a fire-fighting plan.

In the building where the guesthouse operated, the rooms were very close together, making it easy for the flames to spread and difficult for the guests to escape, the fire department said.