A fire on Wednesday ripped through a historic Japanese castle that was built in the 1400s, a report said.

The flames broke out near the main hall of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Shuri Castle on the island of Okinawa, the South China Morning Post reported.

The castle was built during the Ryukyu Kingdom and was completely destroyed during WWII, according to CNN.

It was reconstructed after the war and fully redone in the 1990s, CNN reported.

Residents near the castle were being evacuated from the area after the flames broke out, reports said.