One person was killed and more than 1‚000 shacks destroyed in a fire early on Saturday in Khayelitsha‚ Cape Town.

More than 4‚000 people were thought to have lost their homes as the fire raged out of control shortly before 9am‚ said Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service divisional commander Edward Bosch.

With a strong south-easter blowing‚ Bosch said: “The wind is making it difficult to control.”

Seventeen firefighting vehicles and 85 firefighters arrived at the scene in Town Two after the alarm was raised around 4am.

“The [service] responded to numerous wood and iron structures alight at Charles Mokoena Street‚” said Bosch.

JP Smith‚ the City of Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety and security‚ said the disaster managenement joint operations centre in Goodwood was being activated at 10am.