Nearly 5,000 people have been mobilized to put out a big forest fire Thursday afternoon in northeast China's Liaoning Province, local authorities said. No casualties have been reported so far.

The fire was spotted at about 3 p.m. near the Qipanshan tourist area in Shenyang City, capital of Liaoning. The major part of the blaze was put out at 7 p.m. while firefighters were damping down smouldering areas and preventing rekindling, said the information office of Shenyang city government.

The information office said it believed the cause of the fire was farmers burning grass to clear the land.

Qipanshan tourist area covers 97 square kilometers of forest and has a population of 51,000.

(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2009)