V006-BRASIL INICIO INCENDIO COP30

STORY: Surveillance footage released by Para state government on Thursday (November 20) showed panic and chaos as fire broke out at the COP30 venue in Belem, Brazil forcing delegates to evacuate.

Negotiators were hunkered down at moment of the fire trying to seal a deal to strengthen international efforts to address climate change.

Officials said the fire, which erupted at one of the country exhibition pavilions, had been brought under control with no injuries as security personnel ordered thousands of delegates in the sprawling building to go outside.

The summit in the Amazon city of Belem, Brazil, had already missed a self-imposed Wednesday deadline to secure agreement among the nearly 200 countries present on issues including how to increase climate finance and shift away from fossil fuels.

There are less than 48 hours until the scheduled end of the summit to find a consensus, which host nation Brazil has framed as a crucial step to ramping up international climate action and demonstrating that there is broad support to accelerate turning decades of promises and pledges from the COP summits into concrete action.