At least 230 die in Brazil nightclub inferno: Tragedy as fire engulfs crowd after indoor fireworks display during band performance

At least 245 people have been killed in a Brazil nightclub after a fire ravaged through the building in the early hours of this moing.

Initial reports were that 90 people perished in the blaze, but firefighters quickly updated the figures as the extent of the fire was revealed.

The total number of victims is still unknown and there may be hundreds injured, civil police and regional govement spokesman Marcelo Arigoni told Radio Gaucha.

People run to safety and try to rescue others after a massive infeo tore through a Brazil nightclub in the early hours of this moing killing at least 180 people

He told the radio a truck carrying 70 bodies had arrived at the Municipal Sports Centre, which was being used as an improvised morgue.

Police believe there are about 20 bodies still inside the club.

At least 200 people have been injured, they said.

Officials say the fire broke out at the Kiss club in the city of Santa Maria, 550km from Porto Alegre, southe Brazil, while a band was performing.

Firefighters battle to put out the fire which tore through the Kiss Club in Santa Maria, southe Brazil

Emergency services say they feared at least 20 more bodies remained inside the building, and hundreds of others were injured

The cause of the fire is not yet known, however, Sandro Meinerz, spokesman for the police in the city of Santa Maria, told local media that the fire broke out at the Kiss club while a band was performing.

Local newspaper Diario de Santa Maria reported that the fire started at around 2am.

Club security guard, Rodrigo Moura, is quoted in the paper as saying the venue was at maximum capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000. He said partygoers were pushing and shoving to escape.

Ezekiel Corte Real, 23, was quoted by the paper as saying he helped people to escape. 'I just got out because I'm very strong,' he said.

'Sad Sunday', tweeted Tarso Genro, the goveor of the southe state of Rio Grande do Sul. He said all possible action was being taken and that he would be in the city later in the day.

Santa Maria, at the southe tip of Brazil near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay, is a major university city with a population of around a quarter of a million.

The fire appeared to be among the world's deadliest in a nightclub since a 2004 fire killed 194 people at an overcrowded working-class nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

A blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, broke out in December, 2009, when an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling, killing 152.

A nightclub fire in the US state of Rhode Island in 2003 killed 100 people after pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling.

And a welding accident reportedly set off a December 2000, fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309.