A massive fire tore through a 200-year-old museum in Rio de Janeiro late on Sunday, lighting up the night and sending large plumes of smoke into the air. Firefighters worked to put out the blaze at the esteemed National Museum in northern Rio, which houses artefacts from Egypt, Greco-Roman art and some of the first fossils found in Brazil. It wasn’t clear how the fire began in the institution, which is one of Latin America's largest natural history museums. News portal G1, citing the museum, reported that nobody was injured and the fire began after the museum had closed for the day. Sgt. Moises Torres from the state’s firefighting headquarters said firefighters got the call and were dispatched at 7.30pm. He said there was no immediate information about injuries. Firefighters try to extinguish a fire at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro Credit: Reuters In a statement, President Michel Temer said it was "a sad day for all Brazilians." "Two hundred years of work, investigation and knowledge have been lost," said Temer. In an interview with Brazil's TV Globo, the museum's director said it was a "cultural tragedy". People rescue items during a fire at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro Credit: Reuters According to the museum's website, it has more than 20,000 items related to the history of Brazil and other countries, and that many of its collections came from members of Brazil's royal family. Connected to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the museum has expositions that include anthropology, archaeology and paleontology, among others. A fire burns at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro Credit: Reuters The vice director of the museum, Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte, told Globo news the museum suffered chronic underfunding. "Everybody wants to be supportive now. We never had adequate support," he said. According to the museum’s website, many of its collections came from members of Brazil’s royal family.
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