A passenger train derailed in Chenzhou city of Central China's Hunan province at around 11:40 am on Monday after it ran into landslide caused by days of rainfall, according to the China Railway Guangzhou Group.

The second to six carriages of the train, T179, from Jinan, Shandong province, to Guangzhou, Guangdong province, derailed while fire broke out in the first carriage, the group, part of the China State Railway Group, the country's top railway operate, said via its official Sina Weibo account.

No fatalities were reported and rescue work was underway, it said.

Injured passengers and railway employees have been sent to hospitals and railway authorities are looking into the cause of the accident, it added.