Huawei research lab in southern China catches fire

A research lab belonging to Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies in the southern city of Dongguan caught fire on Friday and firefighters are currently at the scene, Chinese state media reported citing local authorities.

The fire is currently being extinguished and there are currently no casualties, state broadcaster CCTV said on its official Weibo account.

Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Dongguan city fire-rescue department said in a statement that the facility in the city's Songshan Lake area that had caught fire was a steel structure building and the main material that was burning was sound-absorbing cotton.

The company, whose headquarters is in nearby Shenzhen city, has a large Songshan Lake campus in Dongguan, with offices for 25,000 employees.

Videos posted on Chinese social media said to be of the Huawei research lab showed giant plumes of dark grey smoke billowing from the building.