At least two workers were killed and 60 others, half of them Indians, injured on Thursday when a fire broke out in an under-construction high-rise building in Dubai's new district of Marina.

About two dozen people were also trapped in the building.

Emergency services workers, assisted by helicopters, have been fighting to rescue the labourers trapped in thick black smoke in the building located in a new cluster of high-rise towers coming up on the southern outskirts of the city.

The fire started at around 12:30 pm local time (1400 IST) in the skyscraper on Shaikh Zayed Road.

Fire tenders arrived at the spot after nearly an hour.

Indian officials who visited the hospitals said half of those injured were from India.

The identification of the two deceased was still on.

Forty workers were admitted to Rashid Hospital, 17 to Dubai hospital and four in other hospitals in the city.

Many eyewitnesses claimed to have seen a man fall from one of the 37-story building's upper floors.

Trapped workers waved towels at hovering helicopters or climbed toward the roof on scaffolding.

Rescuers could be seen carrying injured workers on stretchers and putting them in ambulances.

Pakistani and Chinese workers are also said to be among those wounded. Three labourers are in serious condition, officials said.