Unidentified assailants fired a missile at a hotel in Aden used by senior Yemeni government officials on Tuesday, causing a number of casualties, residents said.

Yemeni vice president Khaled Bahah and other Yemeni officials were unhurt in the attack, officials said. President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is believed to be overseas.

Video footage posted on Twitter purporting to show the incident showed a large sheet of flame enveloping the front of the building, followed by an expanding plume of dark smoke.

The missile appeared to have been fired at the gate of the hotel, they said. A second missile landed nearby, while a third landed in the city's Buraiqah district, residents said.

Initial reports had described the missiles as rocket-propelled grenades. There was no official word to confirm what type of projectile had been used in the attack.

The Qasr hotel has been the base of Hadi's government since its gradual return from exile in Riyadh over recent weeks after the expulsion of Iranian-allied Houthi fighters in July.

The hotel has been guarded by troops from the United Arab Emirates, one of the members of a Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting since March to end Houthi control of Yemen and restore Hadi to power in the capital, Sanaa.