A container fire broke out on board a ship in the main Jebel Ali Port in southern Dubai on Wednesday night, the Dubai media office said, after a loud explosion was heard across the city.

At least three residents in the vicinity of Jebel Ali told AFP they heard the sound of the explosion and the shaking of doors and windows of their apartments and homes in southern Dubai, which rarely witnesses major accidents.

The media office said in a tweet, "Civil Defense teams in Dubai are currently dealing with a fire caused by the explosion of a container on board a ship in Jebel Ali Port."

The causes of the accident are not yet known.

"I was on the balcony, my friend saw a yellow ball like the sun, I took a picture and that's when the explosion happened," Clemence Auve, who lives in an apartment near the area of the accident, told AFP.

In the Marina area, a few kilometers from the port, a resident said, "I saw the glass vibrate. I've lived here for 15 years and this is the first time I've seen and heard such a thing."

An AFP photographer from the port gate saw clouds of smoke rising from the interior and a helicopter flying over the site.