Rebels in control of Yemen's capital accused the Saudi-led coalition fighting them of killing more than 100 people and wounding hundreds more on Saturday in air strikes on a funeral hall in Sanaa.

The coalition, which has come under increasing international scrutiny over alleged civilian deaths, denied responsibility for the attack.

"The toll is very high: more than 520 wounded and more than 100 martyrs," the spokesman of the health ministry in Sanaa, Tamim al-Shami, told rebel Almasirah television. The rebel-controlled news site sabanews.net said coalition planes targeted the building where hundreds had gathered for a funeral service.

The Saudi-led coalition denied carrying out the air strikes, saying in a statement that it had no operations at the location and "other causes" for the incident must be considered.

It said the alliance "has in the past avoided such gatherings and they have never been a subject of targeting."

Yemeni security and medical officials said the dead and wounded included military and security officials from the ranks of the Shia Houthi rebels fighting the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the Associated Press reported

The strikes came as Saudi Arabia, which has overseen the bombing of Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015, is under increasing international scrutiny over alleged civilian deaths from its air raids.

Emergency workers pulled at least 20 charred remains and body parts from the gutted building, while others scoured the wreckage in search for survivors, an AFP photographer at the scene said.

Some wounded had their legs torn off and were being treated on the spot by volunteers, he said.

Rebel Almasirah television said Sanaa mayor Abdel Qader Hilal was among those killed.

People had come from all over Sanaa to attend the funeral, said Mulatif al-Mojani, who witnessed the air strikes.

"A plane fired a missile and minutes later another plane pounded" the building, he told AFP.

Another witness, who declined to give his name, described the attack as a "war crime".

"This was a funeral for one man in Sanaa, and now it has turned into a funeral for scores of Yemenis," he said.

A security source, cited by the rebel website, said a fire subsequently ripped through the building.

The Iran-backed Houthis swept into Sanaa in September 2014 and advanced across much of Yemen, forcing the internationally recognised government of Hadi to flee the capital.

More than 6,700 people - most of them civilians - have been killed in Yemen since the coalition intervened in support Hadi, according to the UN.

Ambulance sirens blared as they transported the wounded away and residents said local hospitals had issued an appeal for blood donations.

The Saudi-led alliance has come under mounting international criticism in recent months over the civilian death toll in its aerial campaign.

A UN report in August said coalition air strikes are suspected of causing around half of all civilian deaths in Yemen.

It called for an independent international body to investigate an array of serious violations by all sides.

The coalition has told AFP it uses highly accurate laser- and GPS-guided weapons and verifies targets many times to avoid civilian casualties.

In addition to the mounting death toll, Yemenis are facing twin health and hunger crises.

The UN's children agency UNICEF estimates that three million people are in need of immediate food supplies, while 1.5 million children suffer malnutrition.