Farmer blamed for fire that halted train

A farmer involved in a fire that caused the emergency shutdown of a train on Saturday in Fuyu county, Heilongjiang province, has been detained by local police, according to a statement from the county government on Sunday.

When the train entered the region of Fuyu Pasture Co of the Beidahuang Agricultural Reclamation Group at around 3 pm on Saturday, a fire in the abandoned reed pond near the railway forced the train to stop.

After 42 minutes, local firefighters doused the blaze and there were no injuries or property losses.

An investigation blamed the fire on a farmer surnamed Jiang, who was burning stalks on his farmland.

A staff member surnamed Liu whose job at the company was to stop stalk burning has been removed from his post, the statement said.