Only in Russia: Railway staff douse train blaze with snow

This footage shows railway workers shovelling snow into a burning train cockpit to douse the flames as the huge blaze threatens to engulf it.

The fire broke out in the cockpit of a train in the Demsky district of the city of Ufa in south-central Russia's Republic of Bashkortostan region on March 3.

Reportedly the cause of the fire was an electrical short-circuit.

Railway workers realised that there was no easily accessible fire extinguisher in the area, and the single hydrant was locked up for unreported reasons.

Station employees are seen on a video throwing shovelfuls of snow into the cockpit and successfully dousing the flames.

An unnamed representative of the local fire brigade said: "By the time we got there, employees of the train station managed to stop the blaze on the train on their own."

No injuries were reported.

The incident is being investigated by both police and the state-owned rail firm JSC Russian Railways.