14 trains canceled after fire on high-speed line

Dozens of trains were delayed and 14 southbound trains departing from Beijing South Station were canceled due to a fire on a train traveling on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail.

Setting off from Qingdao, Shandong province, at 6:30 am, the high-speed train, G281, reported a fire in it's No 2 cabin due to an electric device problem at 11:53 am and made an emergency stop at Dingyuan Station, Anhui province, according to the Shanghai Railway Bureau. A short video recorded by onlookers and circulated on Sina Weibo showed black smoke soaring into the sky from the train against the backdrop of heavy falling snow.

The railway resumed operations at 2:45 pm, according to China Rail Shanghai Group's micro blog account. Passengers boarded a backup train at around 3 pm after the damaged one was removed from the track, a passenger surnamed Huang was quoted as saying in Beijing News.

The accident, which caused no casualties, resulted in delays of up to three hours for nearly 30 trains running along the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line and the cancellation of 14 trains departing from Beijing South Station.

Passengers on the canceled trips, including G139, G3, G143 and G17 heading for Shanghai Hongqiao, G43 for Hangzhou and G59 for Ningbo, Zhejiang province, are entitled to full refunds within 30 days, China Railway Beijing Group said on its microblog.

He Qi contributed to this story.