A massive fire tore through a coastal shanty town in the Philippine capital on Sunday, leaving at least 2,000 families homeless as flames billowed for nearly eight hours.

Thousands have been left homeless after a fire ripped through a densely built slum area of the Philippine capital Manila.

Eight thousand people have been left homeless in Manila after a major fire ripped through a densely packed slum area on Sunday, CNN reports.

Around 2,000 families were left homeless after a six-hour fire destroyed about 1,000 shanties in Isla Puting Bato, Tondo, Manila yesterday morning.

The fire spread rapidly through makeshift homes in Manila’s Tondo district, an official said, displacing 1,000 families. “It’s like you lit up a box of matches.”

Firemen tackled a huge fire that ripped through hundreds of slum homes in the Philippine capital Manila on Sunday. Footage shows a Philippine Air Force helicopter dumping water over the raging inferno in Isla Puting Bato - a squatter settlement that sits next to the heavily polluted Manila Bay - on.