(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-13 19:47

WUDU, Gansu  -- A 40-car freight train, which included 13 tankers full of gasoline, derailed and caught fire on Monday in northwest China following the Sichuan earthquake, cutting the Baoji-Chengdu railway, officials said on Tuesday.

The train was still burning at 3:40 p.m. Tuesday, 25 hours after the accident in Huixian County, Gansu Province. Firefighters, who had moved six kilometers from the site for fear the tankers could explode, have resumed work to extinguish the fire.

More than 900 local residents were evacuated, an official with the Huixian County disaster relief headquarters said.

More than 1,000 workers were repairing the damaged rail line, but it was unknown when traffic would resume, said the Xi'an Railway Bureau.

The train derailed in Huixian County at about 2:30 p.m. Monday, roughly the time the massive quake struck. The train had been en route from Baoji, Shaanxi Province to Guangyuan, Sichuan Province, the bureau said.

The locomotive caught fire first, and flames then engulfed the tankers, which had been buried by rocks, a spokesman for the Longnan municipal government in Gansu said on Tuesday.

At least one of the train's two drivers was injured, according to initial reports.