A blaze has taken the lives of at least ten people after engulfing a dormitory  at the youth training centre of Flamengo Football Club, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The cause of the fire is still unknown and is believed to have started as the players were sleeping.

A local news agency, G1 news portal are reporting the fire started at around 05:00 and was extinguished by 07:30 (GMT-2) Friday morning.

No victims have been named, but firefighters have said that those injured have been taken to a nearby hospital.

Flamengo are one of Brazil’s biggest teams, having won their domestic division on five occasions.

Their training facility Ninho do Urubu, where the incident took place, was recently expanded and only opened two months ago.