Trump Tower fire: Hotel in Azerbaijan capital Baku ablaze just weeks after deadly inferno at New York building

There were no reports of injuries in the unfinished hotel

A skyscraper that was slated to become a Trump International Hotel in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku has caught fire.

The Azadliq newspaper reported that the blaze broke out on the middle floors of the 33-storey building, which is locally known as Trump Tower, and spread.

Etibar Mirzoev, deputy head of the Emergency Situations Ministry, said there were no injuries and authorities were working to establish the cause of the of the fire.

He said it took more than three hours to extinguish the flames and suggested the response was delayed because of road closures put in place for Sunday’s Grand Prix, on the Baku City Circuit.

It came after an apartment fire at Trump Tower in New York left a prominent art dealer dead and six firefighters injured earlier this month.

Development was started on the tower in Baku a decade ago but it has never opened.

Originally planned as a luxury apartment building by local developers, the project was taken over by the future US President’s company in 2012.

The Trump Organisation announced that a hotel would occupy the first 13 floors, with flats on the storeys above, but pulled out of the project in December 2016 following Mr Trump’s election.

There was controversy over affiliation between the company that owned the project, Baku XXI Century, and a local family associated with corruption.

Additional reporting by Reuters