Brazil's 200-year-old national museum hit by huge fire

A huge fire has broken out at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, the oldest scientific institution in the country.

Firefighters are tackling the blaze at the building, which contains more than 20 million items in its collection.

It is not yet clear if anyone has been injured in today's fire.

Brazil's President Michel Temer said in a tweet that it was a sad day for all Brazilians" as "200 years of work, research and knowledge are lost adding that the value of their history cannot be measured by the damage to the building.

The museum houses thousands of items related to the history of Brazil and other countries including Egyptian artefacts, according to its website.

Its natural history collection includes important dinosaur bones and a 12,000‑year‑old human skeleton of a woman ‑ the oldest ever found in the Americas.

[Source:BBC News]