ICE is believed to have caused a fire underneath a train at Basingstoke railway station this morning.

An empty train travelling between Waterloo and Portsmouth was at platform one when an electrical short circuit caused sparks which ignited the fire.

Rail staff started tackling the blaze with extinguishers until nine firefighters arrived from Basingstoke fire station at about 9am.

Once power had been cut to the electric third rail and trains halted, the Red Watch firefighters were able to tackle the blaze from the tracks.

Watch manager Keith Jones said: “We continued with extinguishers and isolated the junction box which was on fire. Because of the large amount of heat it generated it took sometime to cool down.

“From when we arrived we were never concerned the fire would spread. Our people had control straight away.”

No one was injured, but the line was shut for an hour until the train could be moved to a siding at Barton’s Mill, Old Basing.

Network Rail reported no indication of damage to the track.

Lindsay Reid, a corporate communications manager for South West Trains, said: “The train had no passengers on board.

“An electrical equipment unit under the train short circuited and caused some sparks.

“It was to do with ice and snow on the contact rail. It affected the power supply to the train and it can cause an electrical short circuit on occasions.”

She said services had generally been running normally since 10am, although an electrical short circuit to a train at Surbiton had caused some delays on services between Waterloo and Portsmouth.