Huge fire kills 9 in California concert venue, 25 missing

At least nine people have been killed in a fire that broke out at a concert venue in the US state of California, with many others feared to be trapped in the fire, officials say.

The massive blaze broke out in a building that hosted a concert late at Friday night in Oakland, fire officials said on Saturday. 

Fire officials said about 25 people are unaccounted for. It's not clear that those who are missing are dead or alive.  

Some 50 people were at the event when the fire broke out, the fire fighters said. 

Fire Chief Teresa Deloach-Reed described the building as "huge," saying the roof had collapsed and complicated efforts to recover bodies.

"There is a large majority of that building that has not been searched," she added. "We are hoping that the number nine is what there is and that there are no more. But we have not done a complete."

Three fire engines were called out to the scene.

Firefighters, who were called out to the building, were still on the scene early Saturday morning, Oakland Fire Department said.

Videos posted on social media by the department showed a large fire burning through the roof of the building.

“It was too hot, too much smoke, I had to get out of there,” Bob Mule, a photographer who lives at the building, told Fox News.

“I literally felt my skin peeling and my lungs being suffocated by smoke. I couldn’t get the fire extinguisher to work.”

He said he saw another person jump from a second floor window.