No casualties were reported from a fire that broke out at a construction site in downtown Shanghai on Wednesday morning, the government and witnesses said.

The site, located in Huangpu District in the city center, caught fire at around 9:30 a.m., after construction workers unknowingly damaged an underground gas pipe.

A subsequent gas spill triggered the fire that lasted for nearly an hour and brought traffic in the area to a standstill.

The local government said firemen capped the gas leak within an hour and traffic flow resumed by 11 a.m.

An investigation into the fire was underway.

The site of the accident, at the intersection between Renmin Avenue and Lishui Road, was along a planned tunnel linking with the Shanghai World Expo facilities located on both banks of the Huangpu River.

Shanghai has stepped up its infrastructure construction in the run-up to the six-month expo that starts in May 2010.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2008)