A number of people have died and others have been injured in a fire that broke out in a 10‑storey block of flats in Antwerp, Belgian police say.

Thick smoke was seen billowing from the eighth floor of the building in the Linkeroever district after the fire broke out just before 10:00 (08:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

Video footage captured a resident clambering from his balcony through a neighbour’s window to escape the black smoke.

Police say more than 200 people live in the block and that bodies of a number of victims have already been found.

Resident Geert Dewulf told Belgian public TV that the thick smoke prevented him from leaving his flat: “We barricaded ourselves into our flat and waited on the balcony. The fire brigade came to rescue us from the balcony 10 minutes or so later with their ladder.”

Firefighters reported that they went from flat to flat searching for possible victims, noting that the smoke had spread quickly through the building and made evacuation difficult.

Another resident recalled that his parents‑in‑law, one of them former mayor Bob Cools, had been successfully evacuated from the building and taken to hospital.

“We tried our utmost to save the cat but unfortunately in the end we were unable to,” he said.

Police said it was too early to identify the cause of the fire, although witnesses told De Standaard newspaper that work was being carried out on the roof.

Antwerp fire brigade spokeswoman Marie de Clercq described the blaze as complex, with poor visibility and thick smoke making it difficult to extinguish.

Prime Minister Bart De Wever expressed his thoughts to the victims and the evacuated residents of the “terrible fire” in Linkeroever.