TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran’s oldest high-rise, the 15-storey Plasco building in downtown Tehran, collapsed live on TV on Thursday after a fire engulfed its top floors.

The building, dating from the early 1960s and including a shopping centre and clothing workshops, had been evacuated, but firefighters were battling the blaze inside and it was not immediately clear if there were casualties.

 Local media had earlier reported 30 people injured by the initial fire, before the building crumbled.

The Plasco building was the first high-rise and shopping centre in Tehran and was the city’s tallest building when it was finished in 1962, until it was dwarfed by the construction boom of later years.

It was built by Habibollah Elghanian, a prominent Iranian-Jewish businessman who was arrested for ties to Israel and sentenced to death after the 1979 Islamic revolution.