A fire engulfs The Address Hotel in downtown Dubai in the United Arab Emirates December 31, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

DUBAI - Fire engulfed a 63-storey skyscraper in downtown Dubai near the world's tallest building on Thursday night, but the block was successfully evacuated and there were only light injuries, the emirate's police chief said.

Tongues of flame shot skywards from one side of the luxury Address Downtown Dubai hotel and residential block, which stands across a plaza from the 830-metre Burj Khalifa tower where people were gathering for a spectacular fireworks display due to mark the start of the New Year. Television pictures showing pieces of blazing debris raining down.

The Dubai government's media office said the blaze was 90 percent under control. Police chief Major General Khamis Matar told Al Arabiya television: "All residents of the hotel were evacuated and there are 14 injured, with light injuries."

A medic on the scene who declined to be identified told Reuters: "There are more than 60 people injured with light injuries from smoke inhalation and from crowding while in the stairs evacuating the building."

One resident staying on the 15th floor of the tower, completed in 2008, told Britain's Sky News of "absolute pandemonium" as those inside realised the building was ablaze.

"The alarms went off when the building was already properly on fire," he said.