A fire at a New York apartment building has killed 12 people including a toddler around one year old, the city's mayor has said.

Bill de Blasio said additional residents of the building in the Bronx, where the blaze broke out on Thursday evening, were fighting for their lives with serious injuries.

New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the fire was "historic in its magnitude" because of the number of lives lost.

The fire was reported just before 7pm at a five-story building a block from the Bronx Zoo.

Working in sub-zero temperatures about 170 firefighters tackled the fire and rescued fleeing tenants.

Earlier Eric Phillips, Mr de Blasio's press secretary said 15 people had been seriously injured.

A fire in the Bronx borough in 2007 killed nine children and one adult.

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