A blaze that erupted at Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been extinguished after the Russian army shelled it from all sides.
This morning, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said there was no release of radioactive material at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant during the fire.
He added that two security personnel were injured.
Mr Grossi said that both Zaporizhzhia and the now-closed Chernobyl were under the effective control of the Russian military. He confirmed that at the moment Zaporizhzhia was still being run by Ukrainian staff.
Earlier, reports said that firefighters were being prevented from extinguishing it as Russian troops bombarded the important energy-producing city of Energodar in the south of Ukraine with shells on Friday.
Mr Grossi said the IAEA has been in contact with the Ukrainian nuclear regulator and the Zaporizhzhia plant and says the situation "continues to be extremely tense and challenging".
A generating unit at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was hit during an attack by Russian troops and part of the station was on fire, RIA news agency citing the Ukrainian atomic energy ministry said.
"Firefighters can't start extinguishing the fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant - they are being fired on at point-blank range. There is already a hit on the first power unit," the agency quoted the ministry as saying.
The Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba confirmed the blaze on Twitter and said an explosion at the nuclear plant could be 10 times worse than the Chernobyl disaster.
"Russian army is firing from all sides upon Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe," Kuleba's tweet said.
"Fire has already broke out. If it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than Chornobyl! Russians must IMMEDIATELY cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone!"
There are 15 nuclear reactors in Ukraine and six of them are at the Zaporizhzhia power plant.
It is feared that if one of the reactors is set on fire then it could lead to a disaster in Europe worse than that at Chernobyl.
Local mayor Dmytro Orlov had earlier reported fierce fighting between Ukrainians and Russian troops near the plant in southeastern Ukraine.
"As a result of continuous enemy shelling of buildings and units of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is on fire," Orlov said on his Telegram channel, citing what he called a threat to world security.
He added that there had been casualties without giving details in the fighting between local forces and the Russian troops.
The Russian military laid siege to Energodar, a city on the Dnieper River that accounts for about one-quarter of Ukraine’s power generation.
Russian troops have been fighting for control of Energodar on Wednesday with tanks, a Ukrainian official earlier said.
Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko said in online posts that the forces had taken control of the area around the Zaporizhzhia plant.
The fire was later said to have happened in a training facility outside the plant's perimeter and the potentially devastating attack sparked condemnation from world leaders.
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the reactors "are protected by robust containment structures and reactors are being safely shut down".
Granholm said on Twitter she had spoken with Ukraine's energy minister about the situation at the plant and added: "We have seen no elevated radiation readings near the facility."
It comes as Russia has already captured the defunct Chernobyl plant, some 100 km north of Ukraine's capital Kyiv.
Kremlin troops stormed the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on the first day of the invasion.
Thousands are thought to have died or been wounded as the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two unfolds, creating one million refugees, hits to Russia's economy, and fears of wider conflict in the West unthought-of for decades.
The incursion is entering its ninth day.
A member of Ukraine's parliament has said the country's government is collating examples of alleged war crimes by Russian forces, after the International Criminal Court's (ICC) prosecutor announced it had launched an investigation into the situation.
Vadym Ivchenko said video footage and other evidence was being gathered by officials.
The ICC announced its investigation amid reports of the use by Russian troops of cluster bombs, with a nursery school and a hospital both reportedly hit.
"We are gathering all the information, all the videos," Mr Ivchenko said.
Mr Ivchenko also called for a humanitarian corridor to be established, saying that aid is not reaching some areas.
He said Sumy, a city in Ukraine's northeast, is "now without a supply of water and supply of food...(people are) just afraid to go there with any humanitarian aid".
He added that Russian troops have surrounded the city, saying: "Imagine what the people in Sumy feel...it's a humanitarian catastrophe, and it's not only one city.
"The humanitarian equation should be negotiated in the mediation of the United Nations or countries like the United States or the United Kingdom."
