A woman died in a shack fire in an informal settlement in Cape Town in the early hours of Sunday, the city's fire and rescue service said.

The city's Jermaine Carelse said the service responded to the blaze in Qandu Qandu informal settlement in Khayelitsha just after midnight.

A team of fire fighters was dispatched but the woman was declared dead on the scene, Carelse said.

The cause of the fire was not known.