Firefighters try to save relics as fire engulfs 200-year-old museum in Rio

RIO DE JANEIRO - A huge fire engulfed Brazil's 200-year-old National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, lighting up the night sky with towering flames as firefighters and museum workers raced to save historical relics from the blaze.

The esteemed museum, which houses artifacts from Egypt, Greco-Roman art and some of the first fossils found in Brazil, was closed to the public at the time of the fire, which broke out at 7:30 pm local time on Sunday.

There were no reports of injuries, the museum said, and it wasn't immediately clear how the fire began.