A fire has destroyed the parliament of Marshall Islands despite attempts by firefighters to save the building.
Fire crews arrived in the early hours of Tuesday morning and began an hours-long effort to stop the blaze after receiving a distress call at midnight.
However, witnesses in the Pacific Island nation's capital, Majuro, said the building was "gutted" by fire and reported seeing its remains smouldering this morning.
Fire department and police officials said half of the building, known as the Nitijela, had been burnt down and the remaining structure could not be used, wires agency Reuters reported.
A Marshall Islands government spokesperson said there were early signs the fire originated from a container trailer adjacent to the building.
"At the time of this report, responders are actively preventing further damage on the capitol grounds," the spokesperson said in a written statement.
The fire struck during a parliamentary sitting period, and as government officials met regularly to finalise the next budget.
Former Marshall Islands health secretary Jack Niedenthal told the ABC the fire had left people in shock.
"It's all taken us by complete surprise this morning," he said.
"It's devastating, absolutely devastating for the government here."
Mr Niedenthal said he saw the remains of the building smouldering this morning.
"The smoke is still there. Lots of people are trying to move things around in there.
"It's totalled … it still has a roof on it, but it's been gutted."
The government spokesperson said the Marshall Islands Police Department's fire truck was unable to respond due to "a critical equipment part being unavailable for maintenance".
Mr Niedenthal said local firefighters were under-resourced and not equipped to deal with large fires.
"We have [a] couple of fire engines here and that's it … we're stretched thin in that department."
'People are stunned'
The Pacific island nation's leaders will need to move to another location to finalise the nation's budget, Marshall Islands Journal editor Giff Johnson said.
"[Parliament's] library, its records, they're all gone," he said.
"No doubt there's a lot backed up but losses like this are kind of unimaginable.
"People are stunned by it."
Marshall Islands, with a population of 39,000 and situated between Australia and Hawaii, is an independent nation although the United States is in charge of its security.
Photographer and documentary filmmaker Chewy Lin arrived at the scene of the fire soon after a friend messaged him about it.
"The fire just went to the roof," he said.
"It was just really windy."
He said firefighters lacked the equipment to douse the flames from a higher position.
"They have no option. [They can just] pretty much aim the water high but, because [of] a lack of water pressure, they just couldn't aim that high," he said.
Lin had been in the building only the previous afternoon to take photos.
"It really symbolised our republic of Marshall Islands's independence and democracy," he said.
"Having a significant building being burnt, there's none like this in the past, so it really struck us in the Marshall Islands that our symbol of our democracy is gone.
"We need all the powers and all the wisdom of the leadership to come and lead us and build again."
