The UN climate talks COP30 have been evacuated due to a fire breaking out inside the venue in Belém, Brazil.BBC journalists saw flames and smoke in the pavilion area before they were rushed outside where fire engines raced past.The UN has said the fire is now contained “with limited damage”. It is not yet known what caused the blaze. The talks were in the final hours of trying to agree on next steps to tackle climate but the fire has disrupted negotiations.”It was climbing the walls and onto the ceiling. People were screaming,” Dr Harshita Umesh, who was giving a talk next to the place where they fire broke out, told BBC News.”Then I ran, I think I tripped and fell.”Dr Umesh, who is a medical doctor, said that ambulance staff told her no-one has burn injuries but that some first responders inhaled “toxic fumes” and are now using oxygen masks.Emergency medicine specialist Kimberly Humphrey, currently helping patients at the COP medical centre, told the BBC that the injuries are “Mainly people with smoke inhalation, someone with a lung injury from smoke.””People are pretty traumatised and shocked,” she added.”There’s a huge panic, people have been running out of here, it’s a very dramatic moment… UN security guards are telling us to leave,” said BBC Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt.”It looks actually as if they are beginning to get it under control but you can see huge columns of smoke rising up into the air through the hole that’s been burnt in the top of the conference centre.”BBC journalists saw two ambulances driving towards the entrance more than 90 minutes after the fire started.A Brazilian security officer putting a chain through the gates of the venue with a chain told the BBC they are evacuating the premises and locking it.After the fire broke out, orange flames burned a hole through the sheeting that covers the venue, which is in a former aerodrome. One video shows a man spraying a fire extinguisher at th …
