Fire at Brazil guesthouse leaves at least 10 dead

At least 10 people died and 11 were injured in the early hours of Friday morning in a major fire at a guesthouse in Brazil's southern city of Porto Alegre.

The Rio Grande do Sul state fire department is still searching for the missing.

The firefighters said they were called at around 2:00 am (0500 GMT) on Friday and extinguished the fire within two hours.

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

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 added.