[BBC] – About 25 firefighters are missing and feared dead after a high-rise building in Iran’s capital, Tehran, caught fire and collapsed, officials say.

Two hundred had battled the blaze in the landmark 17-storey Plasco building for several hours before it fell to the ground in a matter of seconds. Rescue workers and sniffer dogs are searching the rubble for survivors.

Completed in 1962, the building was once Tehran’s tallest and contained a shopping centre and clothing workshops. Officials said there had been warnings about a lack of safety in the building.

The fire reportedly began on the ninth floor at around 08:00 (04:30 GMT). Initial photos showed flames and smoke pouring out of the top of the building. Ten fire stations responded to the blaze and state television reported that dozens of firefighters were inside the building when the north wall collapsed, swiftly bringing down the whole structure.

One of the firefighters told AFP news agency: “I was inside and suddenly I felt the building was shaking and was about to collapse. We gathered colleagues and got out, and a minute later the building collapsed.”

“It was like a horror movie,” the owner of a nearby grocery shop told Reuters.

Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said rescue workers were searching for at least 25 firefighters thought to have been inside the building when it collapsed.

He added that “no ordinary civilians” were believed to be trapped, but witnesses told the Associated Press that they had seen some people slip through the police cordon in an attempt to retrieve their possessions.

Some business owners were later filmed by state TV trying to enter the ruins. Masoumeh Kazemi said her two sons and a brother had jobs at one of the many clothing workshops inside the building.

“I do not know where they are now,” she told the Associated Press in tears.

The official Irna news agency reported that more than 200 people were injured in the incident and had been taken to hospitals across the capital.

Police officers had cordoned off Jomhoori avenue, which passes by the building, as well as the nearby British and Turkish embassies, it added. Fire department spokesman Jalal Maleki said it had repeatedly warned the building’s managers that it was unsafe, even lacking fire extinguishers.

“Even in the stairwells, a lot of clothing is stored and this is against safety standards. The managers didn’t pay attention to the warnings,” AFP quoted him as telling state TV.

The Tasnim news agency reported that the building “had caught fire in the past”. President Hassan Rouhani ordered Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli to investigate the incident, calling it “extremely sad and unfortunate”.

The Plasco building was built by the prominent Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian and was named after his company. He was executed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution after being convicted of charges including spying for Israel.