A Russian military train carrying ammunition caught fire on Wednesday, in a blaze that destroyed one carriage and triggered blasts that scattered shells up to 200 metres (650 feet) away, the defence ministry said.
There were no casualties in the accident which happened when the train was around 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the main Siberian city of Novosibirsk, the ministry was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
However state-run Russian Railways have halted the movement of trains on the main Trans-Siberian railway so that the accident can be cleared up. It was not clear what started the fire.
One carriage was completely destroyed and five were damaged, the ministry said, adding that the fire had now been localised.
"The military train was carrying 30-millimetre shells which were to be destroyed," a defence ministry official told the Interfax news agency. "As a result of the fire they started to explode. They flew out to a distance of no more than 200 metres."
Interfax said four mine-sweeping groups had been sent to the area to clean up the shells.